CNN.com - Japan 'guilty' over WW2 sex slaves

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A mock court has found the Japanese Government guilty of creating, regulating and maintaining a policy of sexual enslavement for its troops during World War II.

Applying the standards of a war tribunal, the panel of four international judges demanded that Tokyo make amends for its dark past.

The panel also asked the allied countries that fought Japan 60 years ago to release records of the wartime system of "comfort women" and declassify documents showing why the late Japanese Emperor Hirohito was not prosecuted.

In the 1930s and 1940s, up to 200,000 women are believed to have been forced into prostitution across Asia.

They were held in prison-like conditions and many were subjected to daily beatings, torture and rape.

The demand for compensation was made by the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal, a self-appointed group that has no judicial authority.

Although its recommendations are not binding, the tribunal questioned witnesses and gathered evidence much like a real court.

The tribunal was headed by Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald of the United States, a former president of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

It held four sessions in Tokyo a year ago, when the judges heard testimony from 35 survivors and Japanese former soldiers who confessed to criminal behaviour.

Its final conclusions were released in The Hague, the Dutch city that hosts the Yugoslav tribunal and the World Court, on Tuesday.

"The 'comfort system' was conceived, established, regulated, maintained, and facilitated by the Japanese Government and military," said a summary of the 240-page judgment.

The facilities of the "highly-regulated and institutionalised system" were patrolled by armed guards and fenced off with barbed wire.

Some women were raped at makeshift brothels in caves where men bought tickets and waited their turn, the tribunal said.

"Primary responsibility lies and remains with the state of Japan for its continuing failure over the past 56 years to prosecute, to officially and fully apologise, and to provide reparations," said the presiding judge.

While Tokyo admits sexual enslavement existed, it refuses to provide compensation or to apologise. The government insists that postwar peace treaties settled all outstanding issues and that international law does not require damages to be paid.

At the same time, Tokyo set up a private foundation to issue compensation. But most women have refused to accept it, saying it is not enough and that apologies should come from the government itself.

An indictment compiled by the mock court charges the former emperor and eight high-ranking military and government officials with crimes against humanity for atrocities carried out by subordinates.

The Japanese Government is responsible for the crimes because state officials knew about or should have known about the illegal practices and failed to prevent or stop them, the tribunal said.

It criticised allied countries and the United Nations for not having pressured Japan to own up to the deeds.

In doing so, they "denied women equal access to the law and perpetuated the view that their suffering did not merit equal disapprobation," the ruling said.

The lengthy judgment recounts the stories of female sex slaves from Indonesia, Malaysia, North and South Korea, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, East Timor and the Netherlands.