Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State
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''Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State'' was an unsuccessful case brought before the District Court of Tokyo by a group of five survivors of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who claimed the action was illegal under the laws of war and demanded reparations from the Japanese government on the ground that it waived the right for reparations from the U.S. government under the
Treaty of San Francisco The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It w ...
.


Background

Ever since the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
, there has been legal debate over the action. On August 10, 1945, the Japanese government addressed a communication to the
International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
, asking it to denounce the U.S. government as performing a crime under international law. Following surrender and the landing of US occupation troops in Japan, the Prime Minister
Naruhiko Higashikuni General was a Japanese imperial prince, a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 30th Prime Minister of Japan from 17 August 1945 to 9 October 1945, a period of 54 days. An uncle-in-law of Emperor Hirohito twice over, Prince Hi ...
offered not to make any complaints in the media or in legal institutions about the use of the nuclear weapons if the United States Government agreed to drop its demand to try Japanese war criminals. During the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, some of the defence lawyers tried to convince the International Military Tribunal of the Far East to launch a legal investigation into the matter of the legality of the first use of nuclear weapons, but their motions were ignored. Yuki Tanaka's article is followed by a companion article by Richard Falk One of these defence lawyers, Shoichi Okamoto, continued to deal with the issue after the trial was concluded. In February 1953, he published a booklet titled "''Genbaku Minso Wakumon'' (Questions and Answers on the Civil Lawsuit over the Atomic Bombings)", in which he called upon individuals in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to take legal action against the U.S. government within the U.S. legal system. Okamoto's plan met great deal of opposition within Japanese society and even in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Shinzo Hamai ''Shinzo'', known as in Japan, is an anime television series produced by TV Asahi, Toei Advertising, and Toei Animation. It was directed by Tetsuo Imazawa, with Mayori Sekijima handling series scripts, Sachiko Kamimura designing the charact ...
, the mayor of Hiroshima at the time, opposed the plan on grounds that the US legal system was not favorable to such actions. As a result, Okamoto gave up the notion of trying the case in a US court and decided to seek action in the Japanese legal system. In co-operation with local organizations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a group of five people were selected for the purpose of making the motion in a Japanese court. Shimoda, the leader of the group, came from Hiroshima and was 57 years old. He lost four daughters and one son in the atomic attack on Hiroshima, and he, his wife and surviving son suffered from persistent health problems. A lawyer named Yasuhiro Matsui joined the legal team. Proceedings at the District Court in Tokyo began in April 1955, and they lasted for eight and a half years until the final ruling was rendered on December 8, 1963. Okamoto died of a stroke in April 1958 and did not live to see the final ruling.


The ruling

On 7 December 1963, in ''Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State'' the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
were the subject of a Japanese
judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
. On the 22nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the District Court of Tokyo declined to rule on the legality of nuclear weapons in general, but found that "the attacks upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused such severe and indiscriminate suffering that they did violate the most basic legal principles governing the conduct of war". In the opinion of the court, the act of dropping an atomic bomb on cities was at the time governed by international law found in
Hague Convention of 1907 The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amo ...
''IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land'',Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907
, The
Avalon Project The Avalon Project is a digital library of documents relating to law, history and diplomacy. The project is part of the Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. The project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back to the be ...
at
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...
and ''IX - Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War'',Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War (Hague IX); October 18, 1907
, The
Avalon Project The Avalon Project is a digital library of documents relating to law, history and diplomacy. The project is part of the Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library. The project contains online electronic copies of documents dating back to the be ...
at
Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...
and the ''Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare of 1922–1923'',The Hague Rules of Air Warfare
The Hague, December, 1922-February, 1923 These rules were never adopted
and was therefore illegal. It was reported in the ''Hanrei Jiho'' (Law Cases Report), vol. 355, p. 17; translated in ''The Japanese Annual of International Law'', vol. 8, 1964, p. 231.Hanrei Jiho, vol. 355, p. 17; translated in The Japanese Annual of International Law, vol. 8, 1964, p. 231.
(PDF)
that the facts were that and that it was held


Aerial bombardment

The judgement draws several distinctions which are pertinent to both conventional and atomic
aerial bombardment An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...
. On the basis of international law found in
Hague Convention of 1907 The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amo ...
''IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land'', and ''IX - Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War'', and the ''Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare of 1922–1923'', the Court drew a distinction between "Targeted Aerial Bombardment" and indiscriminate
area bombardment In military aviation, area bombardment (or area bombing) is a type of aerial bombardment in which bombs are dropped over the general area of a target. The term "area bombing" came into prominence during World War II. Area bombing is a form of str ...
, that the court called "Blind Aerial Bombardment" and a distinction between a defended and an undefended city. Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 6 "In principle, a defended city is a city which resists an attempt at occupation by land forces. A city even with defence installations and armed forces cannot be said to be a defended city if it is far away from the battlefield and is not in immediate danger of occupation by the enemy." Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 7 The court ruled that blind aerial bombardment is permitted only in the immediate vicinity of the operations of land forces and that only targeted aerial bombardment of military installations is permitted further from the front. It also ruled that the incidental death of civilians and the destruction of civilian property during targeted aerial bombardment was not unlawful. Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 10 The court acknowledged that the concept of a military objective was enlarged under conditions of
total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...
, but stated that the distinction between the two did not disappear. Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 9 The court also ruled that when military targets were concentrated in a comparatively small area, and where defence installations against air raids were very strong, that when the destruction of non-military objectives is small in proportion to the large military interests, or necessity, such destruction is lawful. Thus, in the judgement of the Court, because of the immense power of the atom bombs and the distance from enemy (
Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
) land forces, the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki "was an illegal act of hostilities under international law as it existed at that time, as an indiscriminate bombardment of undefended cities". Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 8


Aftermath

One of the main arguments of the court in the Shimoda case, that the waiver of claims in the San Francisco peace treaty precluded any actions for damages by Japanese citizens against the US government, was also used in the US legal system. In the case of ''Mitsubishi Materials Corporation et al. v. Frank H. Dillman et al.'', dealing with a lawsuit by a former US prisoner of war against
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
for its part in the forced labor that he performed during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Superior Court of Orange County rejected the motion and referred to the Shimoda case as follows:


References


Further reading

* Judge T. Koseki (Toshimasa Koseki), Judge Y. Mibuchi (Yoshiko Mibuchi), Judge A. Takakuwa (Akira Takakuwa) (Civil Affairs Division No. 24, Tokyo District Court)
Shimoda et al. v. The State
, Tokyo District Court, 7 December 1963. Source: Hanrei Jiho, vol. 355, p. 17; translated in The Japanese Annual of International Law, vol. 8, 1964, p. 231. Copy on the website of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
原爆裁判・下田事件判決
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryuichi Shimoda V. The State 1963 in Japan Japanese case law Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1963 in case law 1963 in the environment