Juliet Hindell reports from Tokyo on the POWs' reaction to the verdict

Thursday's court decision means Japan will not have to pay compensation to the PoWs, who are now all pensioners.

The Tokyo court's ruling was the final stage of a 50-year campaign to get a full apology, and £14,000 each, for the mistreatment they suffered.

The fear is still fresh in Mrs Jameson's mind

Phyllis Jameson, one of the 20,000 former internees, says: "We lost everything. Our pride, my family - mother, my sisters, my, brother. People say that's the past and that you should forgive and forget. I say it can be forgiven, but not forgotten. Never forgotten."

Peter Hunt speaks to PoW survivor Phyllis Jameson about her sturggle for compensation

She was imprisoned in a camp for civilians on Sumatra after being evacuated from Singapore, when it came under heavy and sustained attack by the Japanese in February 1942.

She was just 13 and lost her five sisters and her mother as the boat that was evacuating them was sunk by the Japanese.

Mrs Jameson's husband is dead but she is still fighting

By day, she was made to dig graves, build roads and cut down trees. At night, it was worse - she was sexually harassed by the guards. She shaved her head to make herself less attractive.

"I had lice so as not to make myself pretty. I shaved off my hair. That was the worst for me because my hair was my pride and joy. Some of them still pestered me at nights, I couldn't get away from it.

"After all these years I still can't get away from it."

Her marriage was the only good thing to come out of the PoW camp

At the end of the war, she received about £45 compensation - prisoners of war got slightly more.

Many other countries negotiated much larger payments from Japan.

On the boat home, she fell in love with and later married Tom Jameson - a Japanese prisoner of war.

Mr Jameson's medals

Only recently, did she find the courage to speak out and join a dwindling band of ageing campaigners. Many of them have died, including, two months ago, her husband.

Those left campaigning have a tough fight on their hands. The Japanese say they have apologised and the issue of compensation was legally settled 40 years ago.