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Suit had been one factor in recent controversy surrounding revision of school textbooks that deleted reference to forced mass suicides

OSAKA
In Japan, where feelings about the nation’s actions during World War II still run deep, a libel suit over a claim that the military was involved in mass suicides in Okinawa was dismissed last week.

A court in Osaka dismissed the suit brought against Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe, 91, and his publisher over statements in his book that military officers ordered civilians in Okinawa to commit mass suicide, reports the Tokyo-based Mainichi Daily News.

The court rejected a $200,000 suit filed by a 91-year-old war veteran and another veteran’s surviving relatives who claimed there was no evidence of the military’s involvement and that the suicides were voluntary, the International Herald Tribune reported.

According to Bloomberg, the judge hearing the case ruled that Oe had “reasonable data and grounds” for the assertion.

In Oe’s 1970 essay, “Okinawa Notes,” he claimed that Japanese soldiers forced the Okinawans to kill themselves instead of surrendering to Allied troops.

“Okinawa Notes” had a wide legal and ethical impact throughout Japan, notes the Times of London, with the lawsuit serving as one basis for the government’s decision last year to change public-school textbooks to delete reference to military-forced suicides.

Sources: International Herald Tribune, Mar. 28 — Mainichi Daily News, Mar. 28 — Times of London, Mar. 28 — Bloomberg, Mar. 28.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Dec. 31, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 18, 2006 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 5, 2006 — Related Newsline story, June 19, 2006 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 17, 2006.