Onder 4.47. Rechtbank Den Haag 1 juni 2022

Zo overweegt het Tokyo High Court onder meer: “ The international situation at that time was a situation in which the few Asian countries were exempt from becoming colonies of Europe and the United States, and Japan had its sovereignty partially restricted by the great powers and was in fear of losing its independence […] Furthermore, the people of Japan recalled a sense of mental solidarity in the portion of the Asian population who were under the control of the colonies of the strong countries of Europe and the United States ”. Verder benadrukken deze rechters dat Japan in de schadeafwikkeling van de oorlog al de nodige veren heeft gelaten (“ Japan accepted the[…] unprecedented and perhaps harsh conditions and sincerely performed thereon ”). Bovendien wijden zij overwegingen aan de omstandigheid dat de burgers van de landen die de oorlog verloren hebben geen enkel recht hebben op compensatie van hun oorlogsschade: “ In reality, relief for war injuries are not independent from victory or defeat in a war […] A such, even if a nation which is party to war is prescribed as having a compensation liability separate from the victory or defeat in war, under a treaty concluded prior to the initiation of war, regardless of the fairness thereof on the surface, this does not mean that in reality the defeated nation or its nationals will be compensated by the victorious nation. Rather it would be better to think that compensation will not be made ”. Wat betreft dit laatste komt wellicht betekenis toe aan het feit dat de rechters in ander verband wijzen op de vernietigende gevolgen van de atoombomaanvallen op Hiroshima en Nagasaki (“ Without recollecting the tragedy of the atomic bombs […] ”). De conclusie hiervan is dat ten aanzien van de bereidheid tot toewijzing van de Japanse rechter geen (legitieme) verwachtingen konden en kunnen bestaan. Hoewel deze conclusie voor eisers uiterst pijnlijk moet zijn, kan de rechtbank niet om deze realiteit heen.

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