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Japanese citizens are outraged after a recently released government report revealed that children as young as nine were among thousands of people who were forcibly sterilised.

It is estimated that 16 500 people were operated on without their consent under a eugenics law that was only repealed in 1996.

The controversial eugenics law was implemented to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants and to protect the life and health of the mother”. Most of the victims were women.

First introduced in 1948, it is believed that nearly 8 000 people were pressured into giving their consent for sterilisation, with an estimated 60 000 abortions taking place to prevent ‘hereditary illnesses’ during this time.

Among those receiving the ‘treatment’, were two nine-year-olds – a boy and a girl.

In 2019, the Japanese government passed legislation offering each of the victims’ compensation of ¥3,2 million (R420 000). Campaigners have however rightly pointed out that the money does not reflect the suffering the victims had experienced.

The application deadline for the payment is due to expire in April 2024, but to date, only 1 049 people have received compensation.

The report has ignited fierce backlash as campaigners have been fighting for recognition and compensation for decades now. Some courts have even refused damages claim on the basis that the 20-year statute of limitations had passed.

Japan is not alone in this shameful practice and both Sweden and Germany had similar eugenic laws in place, although their laws were repealed much earlier, and compensation has been paid to the victims. Both governments have also apologised for the misguided tragedies.

During the late 1800s, some US states also enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was “epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded” from marrying.

A Japanese woman recently had her case struck from the courts after claiming damages. Junko Iizuka was only 16 when she was taken to a clinic in north-east Japan and forced to have a ‘mystery operation’ that she later discovered was sterilisation. Iizuka claims that the forced operation robbed her of a future, as her husband divorced her when he found out she was unable to bear children.

“As soon as I told my husband, whom I trusted, that I had had surgery and was unable to have children, he left me and demanded a divorce,” she said. “I became mentally ill and was unable to work. I have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Eugenics surgery turned my life upside down.”

Authorities say that the Japanese government  “sincerely reflects on and deeply apologises” for the “tremendous pain” victims suffered through forced sterilisation.

The now-defunct eugenics law allowed authorities to sterilise people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness, or hereditary disorders to prevent the birth of “inferior” children. This at the time a requirement for admission to some welfare facilities or for marriage.

Understandably, people are angry.

“The report did not reveal why the law was created, why it took 48 years to amend it or why the victims were never compensated.”

The damage has been done, but victims of the barbaric law are still waiting for some justice after the horrors that were inflicted on them for 50 years.

[source:guardian]