[Kyt]

Japan court rules troops involved in WW2 suicides | Reuters

TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - The Japanese military was involved in mass suicides in Okinawa during World War Two, a court ruled on Friday, dismissing a case for damages against Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe for an essay blaming the troops.

The two plaintiffs, one a former military commander in Japan's southernmost prefecture and the other the brother of a former commander, had sought damages from Oe and his publisher Iwanami Shoten and demanded that he withdraw the 1970 essay.

"The court rejected the suits of both plaintiffs, and they were also ordered to bear the costs of the case," a spokesman for Osaka District Court said.

The plaintiffs, who argued that Oe's descriptions in "Okinawa Notes" could lead to them being regarded as inhumane, said they would appeal the ruling, Kyodo news agency said. They denied the military had issued an order for people to kill themselves.

"It can be said the military was deeply involved in the mass suicides," Kyodo news agency quoted Presiding Judge Toshimasa Fukami as saying in his ruling on Friday.

The 1945 Battle of Okinawa, known as the "Typhoon of Steel," left about 200,000 dead. Many Okinawan civilians committed suicide rather than surrender to the invading Americans, by some eyewitness accounts on the orders of Japanese soldiers.

No one knows how many died that way, but the local Ryukyu Shimbun last year put the figure at at least 995.

The issue has sparked furious debate in Japan, after references to the deaths in school textbooks were toned down last year. Okinawans staged a massive demonstration in September and the references were later restored at the recommendation of a panel of historians.

Fukami cited testimony about the military handing out grenades and the fact that mass suicides were not recorded on islands where there were no military stationed, Kyodo said.

"It cannot be determined whether the former garrison commander and others issued the order themselves, but Mr. Oe has adequate reason to believe so," Kyodo quoted the judge as adding. (Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Hugh Lawson)