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434-ton ore carrier Baosteel Emotion as compensation for the loss of two ships leased from a Chinese company before the two countries went to war in 1937.

By Seong Yeon-cheol and Gil Yun-hyung, Beijing and Tokyo correspondents

The issue of compensation after World War II has emerged as another source of conflict between China and Japan. With the Shanghai Maritime Court impounding a merchant ship owned by Japanese company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines on Apr. 19, Chinese pressure on Japan over historical issues has reached the point where it is actually affecting the activity of Japanese companies inside China. This further complicates bilateral ties, which are already chilly because of the two countries’ fraught history. Recent tension has concerned the territorial dispute about the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China) and visits by conservative Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines dead Japanese soldiers, including war criminals.

“The decision made by the Chinese court undermines the spirit of the China-Japan joint statement that was signed when the two countries established normal diplomatic relations in 1972. We will explore specific measures with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines,” said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

When China established normal diplomatic relations with Japan in 1972, it promised to give up the right to make claims related to wartime reparations.

On Apr. 19, the Shanghai Maritime Court impounded a 280,000-ton cargo vessel owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines that was docked at Majishan port in Zhejiang Province. The court had ruled that Mitsui O.S.K. Lines had failed to return two ships that it borrowed from the Chinese company Chung Wei Steamship Co in 1937 when the contract term ended and that it never provided appropriate compensation. The decision to impound the ship was made three years after the plaintiffs won the suit in Dec. 2010.

In response, the Japanese government is expressing its confusion about why the decision to impound the ship was made now and is reportedly looking into the option of appealing to the International Criminal Court.

“The court’s decision was part of an ordinary commercial claim,” said Qin Gang, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry in rebuttal of Japan’s criticism. “It is completely unrelated to the issue of wartime compensation, and there have been no changes to the spirit behind the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China.” China is taking the position that this is not a claim for wartime compensation but is rather a standard legal dispute between corporations.

However, the legal ruling is expected to precipitate a series of Chinese lawsuits against Japanese companies demanding compensation for damages. In Feb. 2013, 37 Chinese forced to work in Japan during World War II and surviving family members filed a lawsuit with a Beijing Court against Kokeuseu Industrial (formerly Mitsui Mining) and the Mitsubishi Group.

Su Zhiliang, a professor at Shanghai Normal University who has studied the issue of the comfort women, or sexual slaves for the Japanese imperial army, told the South China Morning Post on Apr. 22 that the ruling was leading him to think about helping former Chinese comfort women file lawsuits in Chinese courts.

Claims for compensation that Chinese victims of the war have filed in Japanese courts have all been rejected because of the joint statement signed in 1972. However, there are conflicting reactions in Japanese society. While Japan paid US$500 million to South Korea when the two countries signed the Treaty on Basic Relations in 1965, it did not pay a cent to China.

This is why, when Chinese workers who had been pressed into service at the Hanaoka mine in Akita Prefecture from 1944 to 1945 filed a compensation lawsuit in 1995 against the construction company they had worked for, the Japanese court brokered an agreement that allowed the victims to receive payment.

“It is not very appropriate for senior Chinese officials to demand compensation. But ordinary people can file their cases at these courts. There will be more civil lawsuits against Japan if Sino-Japanese ties remain strained,” said Lian Degui, professor at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, in the South China Morning Post.

If this happens, Japanese companies - which won’t abandon the massive Chinese market - will likely have to make a difficult choice between fighting back and making amends. Sino-Japanese relations are already at a low point, and could get even worse.

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