Japan’s dark history of forced sterilisation

A Japanese government report has revealed that over a 50-year period, under a policy of forced sterilisation, 16,500 people were operated on without their consent. The youngest, a boy and a girl, were just nine. Another 8,000 apparently gave their consent, though under what sort of pressure is unclear. A further 60,000 women had abortions due to hereditary illnesses. This was all done under a eugenics law enacted in 1948 and not repealed until the 1990s.

Victims of the policy, often young girls spirited away to clinics for mysterious operations they didn’t understand, have been campaigning for compensation for decades. Last year a court awarded damages of 27million yen (£150,000) to be divided between three elderly victims, overturning a lower court decision that ruled that a 20-year statute of limitations invalidated their claim.

The 1,400-page report is the most detailed admission yet of a grim episode in Japanese history. Some of the stories of wrecked lives that have emerged are heartbreaking.