$28.5m ends dispute dating back to 1936

A Shanghai court released a Japanese ship after its owner paid 2.9 billion yen (US$28.5 million) owed to a Chinese firm Thursday.

The Baosteel Emotion, owned by Japanese shipping firm Mitsui OSK Lines, was seized on Saturday at a port in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The Shanghai Maritime Court said the owner had fulfilled its legal obligations by paying for delayed rent and losses and court fees of 2.4 million yuan (US$385,000).

The court lifted the detention of the ore carrier at 8:30am.

The case dates back to 1936 when two steamships belonging to Zhongwei Shipping were hired by the Japanese firm on a one-year contract.

Chen Zhongwei, whose great-grandfather Chen Shuntong then owned the Chinese company, said yesterday: "I want to tell my great-grandfather, grandfather and my father to rest in peace because we finally won."

The two ships, Shun Feng and Xin Tai Ping, meaning "good luck and harvest" and "new peace," had been cherished by his great-grandfather, Chen said.

In August 1937, rent payments ceased and the Japanese firm said that the two ships had gone missing.

"The news was like thunderclap to my great-grandfather who only had four ships and now had lost two of them," Chen said.

In 1939, Chen Shuntong went to Japan to ask the Japanese firm for an explanation. The next year, it wrote to say that ownership of the two ships had been acquired by the Japanese government.

Not until 1947 did Chen Shuntong learn that the two ships had both sunk after hitting reefs and mines.

He died in Shanghai in 1949, but in his will he asked his son, Chen Qiaqun, to demand compensation from the Japanese.

Chen Zhongwei said the missing ships and the lawsuit were a frequent topic in letters from Chen Qiaqun to his son Chen Chun, Chen Zhongwei's father.

"My grandfather died with regret and he also asked my father and uncle to fulfill the will and continue the suit," Chen Zhongwei said.

In 1998, Chen Chun organized 56 lawyers from the mainland, Hong Kong and abroad to become a lawyers' think-tank for a suit filed at the Shanghai Maritime Court.

Eventually, in 2007, the court ruled that the Japanese firm should pay the Chinese firm 2.9 billion yen in compensation.

The Shanghai Higher People's Court delivered a final verdict in 2010, backing the 2007 judgment.

However, the case was not over yet as no compensation was paid. Chen Chun died in 2012.

Earlier this week, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang rejected suggestions that the case was related to wartime compensation.

Qin said the case was solely about delayed rent and losses owed to the Chinese firm.