Photo/Illutration Plaintiffs hold a banner before the Supreme Court's ruling on the former Eugenic Protection Law in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on July 3. The court found the law unconstitutional and ordered that the victims of forced sterilization receive compensation. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Kimiko Kobayashi was born in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.

It was summer of 1932, the year after the Mukden Incident.

She had no birth defects, but she developed hearing impairments after suffering from a disease when she was 3.

Her parents ran a liquor shop. She could only use gestures to communicate with others, so she couldn't have difficult conversations.

In a statement she later submitted to a court, Kobayashi said, "I was taught I shouldn't be selfish, so I said 'yes' to whatever I was told and worked hard at it."

She looked after her younger siblings when she came home from school and did the laundry on her days off. 

"I did my utmost to wash clothes in a basin," she said.

She made extra efforts to attend elementary school and graduated after the war when she was 20.

She married a hearing-impaired man through "omiai" (marriage matchmaking).

She always wanted children, so she was happy when she found out she was pregnant.

The couple shared their joy with each other, wondering if it would be a boy or girl.

Her mother visited her out of the blue the next day.

She was taken to a hospital and was forced to undergo an abortion and sterilization with no idea of what was going on.

"Neither my mother nor the doctor gave me any explanations," she said.

Saddened by the loss of her baby, she cried nonstop.

Looking back, the forced sterilization under the former Eugenic Protection Law was "a form of discrimination that greatly distorted my life," she said, adding, "I'm frustrated. I want my body to be fixed."

Kobayashi passed away the year before last, leaving the bleak words behind.

On July 3, the Supreme Court ruled that it would be "extremely contrary to justice" for the government not to compensate Kobayashi and other plaintiffs.

I bite my lip and look up at the July sky as I wonder: "Justice, where have you been for all these years?"

—The Asahi Shimbun, July 4

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.