The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a damages suit against the government filed by Koreans forced to provide sex or work for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

The 35 plaintiffs sought 20 million yen each.

The lawsuit, filed in 1991 with the Tokyo District Court, drew wide media attention as the first to include the euphemistically named ``comfort women,'' who were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers. Other plaintiffs included those who served as soldiers or civilian workers, as well as families of dead workers.

The Tokyo District Court in 2001 and the Tokyo High Court in 2003 rejected the claims.

``This decision without apology or compensation is a warning that Japan will some day repeat its savagery under militarism,'' Yang Sun Im, head of the plaintiffs group from South Korea, said after the top court's ruling. ``There will be no true friendship between South Korea and Japan until this problem of the past is resolved.''

In appealing to the top court, the plaintiffs maintained that it was unconstitutional for the government not to provide wartime compensation when the Constitution guarantees equality and property rights.

The Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court cited precedents in similar cases and asserted the Constitution does not apply to damages from war.

The bench also maintained that the current postwar Constitution was not in place when the damages occurred.

When the Tokyo High Court dismissed the claim, it did acknowledge for the first time that the wartime government had failed in its obligations. It ruled the state should not have placed one of the Korean soldiers and a civilian in situations where they could later be found guilty as war criminals for abusing prisoners. The court also said the ``comfort women'' should not have been put in harm's way.

The high court also denied for the first time the notion that the government under the old Constitution cannot be held responsible for its actions.

But the top court did not touch on these issues.(IHT/Asahi: November 30,2004)