Prisoner of Japan seeks compensation

11:16am Wednesday 5th December 2001

Criteria concerning compensation payments to those interned by the Japanese during the Second World War are 'disenfranchising' British citizens, according to retired Hendon teacher Isaac Abraham.

Mr Abraham, 67, of Green Lane, was nine years old when he was detained in Shanghai by the Japanese from 1943 until 1945.

He moved to London in 1949, but will receive nothing from the Ministry of Defence because he was born in China.

Government criteria state anyone claiming compensation of up to £10,000 must either have been born in the UK, or had parents, grandparents or great-grandparents born in the UK.

Mr Abraham said he had a UK passport from birth and his family had been living in the British quarter of Shanghai in pre-communist China. Indeed he claims the only reason he was interned by the Japanese during the war is because he was British.

"This is penny-pinching," he said. "It just beggars belief. If you take the argument to its logical conclusion, then I am stateless. You cannot say I am not British. I feel quite disenfranchised.

"This should go to the ombudsman, or even before a court of law. It is a question of human rights. Either you are British or you are not British."

Hendon MP Andrew Dismore attacked the Ministry of Defence scheme in the House of Commons last week and said that, like other Japanese prisoners, Mr Abraham should receive £10,000 in compensation.

"At the time, they were British enough to be imprisoned and would have been tried for treason if they had collaborated with the Japanese," he said. "Why are they now not British enough to receive fair compensation?"

Defence minister Dr Lewis Moonie told the Commons: "The Government has been extremely generous over the inclusion criteria for the scheme. We have no intention of amending them."