TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Chinese slave laborers who were forced to work in Japan during World War Two lost their bid for compensation on Friday when the Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling that had ordered a Japanese company to pay them. The Japanese top court"s verdict -- its first in such a case -- coincides with a push by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is currently in Washington for a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, to restore Japanese pride in the past. Critics call the campaign an attempt to whitewash wartime atrocities.

<##IMAGE##> In 2004, the Hiroshima High Court ordered Japanese construction firm Nishimatsu Construction to pay a total of 27.5 million yen ($230,000) to a group of five Chinese in compensation for forcing them to work in Japan during World War Two.

"The ruling is disgraceful in light of friendly relations between Japan and China," said Shinzo Tsuchiya, a supporter of the former laborers.

Nishimatsu had argued that the statute of limitations had expired on violations of obligations to ensure safe working conditions for the workers.

"It was an appropriate decision. That"s all we have to say," said a Nishimatsu official who declined to be named.

The plaintiffs are among 360 Chinese forcibly brought from China to work in Japan in July 1944. Most of them worked at a Nishimatsu hydroelectric power plant construction site in western Japan until the end of the war in 1945.

The ruling comes amid a thaw in ties between Japan and China, set off by Abe"s trip to Beijing last October, and continuing with a return visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this month.

Dozens of wartime compensation suits have been filed against the Japanese government and companies associated with its aggression in the first half of the 20th century, but almost all have been rejected by Japanese courts.

Tens of thousands of Chinese and Koreans were brought to Japan before and during World War Two to work in factories and mines for little or no pay to help support Japan"s war machine.

The Japanese government has acknowledged that many people suffered as forced laborers, but it insists that war reparations have been settled by postwar treaties.

Later on Friday, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on a damages suit filed by two Chinese women who said they were kidnapped and forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers during World War Two.

The issue of so-called "comfort women" has attracted renewed interest after Abe sparked international outrage by denying in March that the military or the government had forced the women, most of them Asian, into sexual slavery.

Abe has since apologized for the suffering of the victims and has repeatedly said he stands by a 1993 government statement that acknowledged official involvement in managing the brothels.

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