The Supreme Court's No. 1 Petit Bench on May 8 upheld lower court rulings that had dismissed a damages lawsuit filed by a group of civilian survivors and relatives of dead victims of a series of U.S. firebombings of Tokyo in 1945.
The plaintiffs had demanded an apology and compensation from the government, saying it neglected its duty to provide relief to civilian sufferers of the war while providing pensions to former servicemen and civilian workers of the Imperial armed forces.
The top court decision is apt to make the plaintiffs feel that the state discriminated against civilian victims of air raids when they compare their treatment with that given to those who belonged to the Imperial armed forces.