Japan is not prepared to discuss cash compensation for British former prisoners of war, its ambassador to London said on Saturday.

Sadayuki Hayashi's comments have been greeted angrily by British veterans.

Mr Hayashi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the issue would not be looked at again "no matter what".

Japanese ambassador to London, Sadayuki Hayashi, talking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme

His comments come at the end of a week in which the British Prime Minister Tony Blair won a fresh apology from Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto for the ill treatment of British veterans.

Mr Blair described the apology, backed by the Japanese government, as a very significant step forward.

Japan also increased its annual payments for cultural and other exchanges to �625,000.

The Royal British Legion welcomed the apology but other veterans' organisations were not satisfied, with some claiming the reconciliation funding was an "insult".

Legal action

A lawyer representing scores of former prisoners of war has vowed to press on with legal action in Japan in a bid to win compensation.

Mr Hayashi reaffirmed the Japanese view that the question of compensation was settled by the San Francisco peace treaty of 1951.

He said: "I know many former PoWs suffered immensely and their treatment was both immoral and inhumane."

But he said Japan had paid compensation in the 1950s - �76.50 per PoW - which he said was a substantial amount of money at the time.

Asked if Japan might be prepared to look again at the issue of compensation, Mr Hayashi said: "We are not. The question of compensation, I think, is closed ... no matter what."

Will not damage Anglo-Japanese relations

He said some British veterans still had hard feelings but added: "I don't think it should damage the relations between Britain and Japan."

Tokyo University's Professor Nobukapsu Fujioka told the same programme there should have been no apology to the British because Britain was the "aggressive invader of Asia" not Japan.

He said every country committed war crimes during war and added: "No country is innocent in this matter."

Arthur Titherington, secretary of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors Association, reacted angrily to Mr Hayashi's comments.

Paltry amount

He said the �76.50 had been a "paltry" amount even in 1951 and said he had used it all up buying a second-hand camera.

Mr Titherington pointed out that the compensation was funded by the sale of the wartime Japanese government's frozen assets and the sale of the infamous Burma railway to Thailand.

He said: "Germany has paid out billions of Deutschmarks to the victims and relatives of the victims of the Holocaust.

"The Americans paid out $20,000 to those second generation Japanese who were relocated from the West Coast during the war.

"All we have received is �76.50. It's an insult."

He said they would be pressing ahead with court action in a bid to get a minimum pay-out of �14,000 per person.
�

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	�