YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The Yokohama District Court ordered the government Thursday to pay compensation to the relatives of five now-deceased men for falsely imprisoning them in the "Yokohama Incident," often described as Japan's worst case of repression of free speech during the war.
Presiding Judge Takaaki Oshima ordered the government to pay a total of about ¥47 million to the relatives of the five, as sought by them, under a 1950 criminal compensation law that requires the government to pay compensation to criminal defendants who are found not guilty.
Thursday's decision is deemed a de facto acquittal because when the court dismissed the retrial case of one of the five last March without judging him guilty or not guilty, it said his dignity would be restored if the government compensated him for false imprisonment.