Japan's Prime Minister vows to help 'war orphans'

Tokyo, Jan 31: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged today to provide financial assistance to ageing Japanese nationals who were left behind in China as children in the closing days of World War Two.

Abe's move came a day after the Tokyo District Court rejected a demand by 40 ''war orphans'' that the state pay compensation for failing to take steps quickly to repatriate them from China and help them resettle in their homeland.

''Regardless of legal issues and rulings, we would like to consider new measures to help deal with the sufferings and difficulties you have had.'' Abe told several of the so-called ''war orphans'' at his official residence.

Abe said he had instructed the health minister to take ''sincere'' steps to deal with the issue, but he gave no details.

The plaintiffs had sought compensation totalling 1.32 billion yen or 33 million yen each.

Yesterday's ruling sparked angry and anguished outcries among the plaintiffs. But, after shaking hands, meeting and talking with Abe, they were more upbeat.

''Yesterday it was hell and today it is a paradise,'' Sumie Ikeda, a 62-year-old, told reporters after meeting Abe. ''We now feel so glad that we came back to Japan. We feel thankful.'' Japan sent some 320,000 settlers to Manchuria after its troops began occupying the province in 1931 and brought Henry Pu Yi, who had abdicated as the Qing dynasty emperor 20 years earlier, out of seclusion to become the emperor of the new puppet state of Manchukuo a year later.

In 1937 Japan invaded China from its foothold in Manchuria.

After returning to their homeland starting in the 1970s, most Japanese ''war orphans'' faced difficulties in adapting and assimilating to life in Japan largely because they did not speak Japanese.

Not until 1975 did Japan's government start to look for Japanese nationals stranded in China, and in 1994 it enacted a law to give aid to the returnees.

Reuters