Mitsubishi ‘sorry’ for using POWs
A senior executive of Mitsubishi Materials will apologize to 94-year-old James Murphy, of Santa Maria, California, and relatives of other former POWs who toiled at plants its predecessor company operated in Japan during the conflict.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the centre — an organisation that primarily educates about the Holocaust — called it an important gesture, coming as it does ahead of the 70th anniversary in August of the end of the war that has heightened scrutiny of Japan’s attitude to its past abuses.
“As far as I know, this is a piece of history,” said Cooper, who is helping moderate the closed-door meeting on Sunday at the centre’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
“It’s the first time a major Japanese company has ever made such a gesture. We hope this will spur other companies to join in and do the same.”
A press release from the Wiesenthal Centre said the apology will be made by Hikaru Kimura, senior executive for Mitsubishi Materials. The company did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment. Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. said it had no information about it.
Masato Otaka, spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said to the extent of his knowledge, it was an initiative of Mitsubishi Materials. He said the Japanese government has no involvement.
Japan’s government issued a formal apology to American POWs in 2009 and again in 2010, but until now, the dwindling ranks of veterans have gained little traction in their demand that Japanese corporations that used them as slaves at mines and industrial plants under often brutal conditions do the same.
Some 12,000 American prisoners were shipped to Japan and forced to work at more than 50 sites to support imperial Japan’s war effort, and about 10% died, according to Kinue Tokudome, director of the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort for companies to apologise.
Japan’s government recently acknowledged that tens of thousands of South Koreans, Chinese and World War II POWs were conscripted to fill labour shortages at factories, mines and other sites as part of its successful attempt to win UN world heritage status for 23 historical Japanese industrial sites.
Tokudome said Mitsubishi Materials will be apologising for its use of forced labour by some 900 American troops at four locations operated by its predecessor company,
