Japanese firm apologises to POWs

A major Japanese corporation offered a landmark apology yesterday for using US prisoners of war for forced labour during World War II, nearly 70 years after the end of the war.

A senior executive of the Mitsubishi Materials corp offered the apology to former POWs — including 94-year-old James Murphy of Santa Maria, California — during a ceremony at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the centre, believes the move is unprecedented.