A U.S. federal appellate court rejected Tuesday for the second time a damages suit filed by 15 Asian women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the war, citing Japan's immunity from such suits in the U.S.
The rejection followed an order by the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear the case after the same court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, upheld a 2001 district court ruling that dismissed the case filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act.
While Tuesday's judgment is a major blow for the appellants, a court official said the "parties may seek further hearings."
In its opinion, the appellate court said U.S. courts are not authorized to hear the lawsuit because the Japanese government had "absolute immunity" from the lawsuit in the U.S. under legal and political grounds.
"As we said when this case was previously before us, much as we may feel for the plight of the appellants, the courts of the United States simply are not authorized to hear their case," said the appellate court, which first heard the case in 2003.
"We hold the appellants' complaint presents a nonjusticiable political question, namely, whether the governments of the appellants' countries resolved their claims in negotiating peace treaties with Japan," it said.