China News Agency, Chongqing, June 5 (Reporter Liu Xianglin) Su Yuankui, head of the Chongqing Bombing Civil Claims Group against Japan, told reporters on the 5th that the Claims Group has recently received relevant legal documents from the Japanese Supreme Court that rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment. The claim team plans to prosecute claims against Japan in China, allowing the Japanese government to look squarely at history and apologize to war victims.
During World War II, as the Far East Command Center of the World Anti-Fascist War and the wartime capital of the National Government, Chongqing was subjected to strategic bombing by the Japanese army for 6 years and 10 months. According to the statistics of the Chongqing Anti-Japanese War Research Group, the Chongqing bombing caused 32,929 direct casualties and 6,651 indirect casualties. The victims of the Chongqing bombing and their families belonged to a private claim group against Japan in 2004 and filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government.
In February 2015 and December 2017, the case was sentenced in the first and second trials, and the results were all lost by the plaintiff. Although the verdict rejected the guilt and compensation requested by the plaintiff, it admitted the facts about insult and victimization. After the verdict in the second instance, the plaintiffs filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan. At present, the Supreme Court of Japan has made a final judgment to dismiss the plaintiff’s appeal.
"Life is endless, and claims are endless." Su Yuankui said that the claim team was not satisfied with the final judgment of the Supreme Court of Japan. The claim team is not only for justice for the victims of the Chongqing bombing, but also for the Japanese government to look squarely at history. The claim is not to extend hatred, but to hope that the world can remember history, oppose war, cherish peace, and prevent history from repeating itself.
On June 5, 1941, the Japanese army carried out a large-scale bombing of Chongqing for more than 5 hours. The high temperature and severe lack of oxygen caused suffocation and death of thousands of people who evacuated in Chongqing’s air defense tunnel in Jiaochangkou. Tunnel Massacre". To commemorate these dead compatriots, the Chongqing Municipal Government designated June 5 every year as the air defense warning test day. Since 1998, every year on June 5th, the anniversary of the "June Five Great Tunnel Massacre", Chongqing will organize the city's air defense warning test to sound, to remind people not to forget national shame, and remember history.
At 10:30 on the morning of the 5th, the air defense alarm sounded over the main city of Chongqing. Nearly a hundred Chongqing bombing survivors and volunteers paid tribute to the compatriots who died in the "June Five Tunnel Massacre" 79 years ago before the Chongqing bombing of the "June Five Tunnel Massacre" site. (Finish)