Mitsubishi Materials to apologize to US WWII veterans

[webfact]

70 years on, Japanese firm to apologize to US WWII veterans
MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major Japanese corporation will offer a landmark apology this weekend for using U.S. prisoners of war for forced labor during World War II, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center that is hosting the event.

A senior executive of Mitsubishi Materials Corp. 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 center — an organization 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 Sunday at the center'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 Center said the apology will be made by Hikaru Kimura, senior executive officer for Mitsubishi Materials Corp. The company did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment late Monday. Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corp. said Tuesday 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 percent died, according to Kinue Tokudome, director of the U.S.-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort for companies to apologize.

Japan's government recently acknowledged that tens of thousands of South Koreans, Chinese and World War II POWs were conscripted to fill labor shortages at factories, mines and other sites as part of its successful attempt to win U.N. world heritage status for 23 historical Japanese industrial sites.

Tokudome said Mitsubishi Materials will be apologizing for its use of forced labor by some 900 American troops at four locations operated by its predecessor company, Mitsubishi Mining Co. Only two living survivors of that ordeal could be located to accept the apology, and of them, only Murphy is fit enough to make the trip to Los Angeles.

Speaking by phone from Santa Maria, California, Murphy recounted how he was shipped to Japan as a POW, two-and-a-half years following his capture in the Philippines where he was serving as a radio operator for the U.S. Army Air Corps. He had survived the notorious Bataan Death March, when thousands of Americans and Filipinos are believed to have perished as they were made to trudge 65 miles to prison camps after their defeat by Japanese forces.

Murphy spent one year at a copper mine near Hanawa with about 500 other POWs, an experience he described as "a complete horror."

"It was slavery in every way: no food, no medicine, no clothing, no sanitation," Murphy said, adding that it was all the more painful knowing that Mitsubishi built fighter aircraft used against American forces.

He said he forgave his captors after the war, but has hankered for an apology for 70 years. He participated in a class action lawsuit attempting to sue the Japanese government for the year he spent in the copper mine, which failed. No money is being offered by the corporation, but Murphy said he considered the upcoming apology "a big deal."

Murphy said if other companies followed suit, it would help provide closure for surviving POWs and build a better relationship between Japan and the United States, already close allies.

Another former POW, Lester Tenney, 94, who met briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a high-profile visit to Washington in April, reserved comment on the planned apology until he hears it, but added, "At least it is a step in the right direction after all these years."

Tenney was forced to work for coal mine near the town of Omuta run by Mitsui Mining Company during the war. He will also attend Sunday's event.

A delegation from Mitsubishi Materials will then travel Tuesday to a small museum in Wellsburg, West Virginia, which commemorates American POWs who survived the Bataan Death March. A statement from the museum says the delegation will announce a donation to support educational programming at the museum, and Edward Jackfert, a former POW, will thank Mitsubishi Materials "for being the first Japanese company to come forth and publicly apologize."
___

AP video journalist Kaori Hitomi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-15

[Chicog]

Better late than never, although there can't be that many left to whom to apologise.

[727Sky]

All I can say is I hope no one ever has to endure what the people at the hands of the Japanese war machine had to endure. The 10% figure quoted in the article is surprising to me for I would have figured it would have been higher. Guess they really needed workers.

[usa4079]

it was war. how far back in history are we gonna go when making people apologize for their actions during wartime. ask the persians? ask the mongols? the vikings? etc. when can we move on?

[h90]

While it is more than overdue for the Japanese apologize, and even more to the Chinese, I am still waiting for the Americans and British to apologize, they did some real hefty war crimes as well.

We should all apologize and ask the former enemy to for pardon to move on for a better future. And even more important we should learn from it. War is very bad and we should avoid it in future -- Hello USA, you hear me --

[willyumiii]

Good for them!

Has the US ever made reparations to all of the good, loyal Japanese - Americans who were US citizens who had all they owned taken away and were then put into concentration camps in the US?

I knew a man who was born in one of the camps in California. He will never forgive the US government for what they did to his family.

[copa8]

All I can say is I hope no one ever has to endure what the people at the hands of the Japanese war machine had to endure. The 10% figure quoted in the article is surprising to me for I would have figured it would have been higher. Guess they really needed workers.

True...but doubt the suffering compares to what the civilians in Nanking had to endure.

[meinanzi]

Good for them!

Has the US ever made reparations to all of the good, loyal Japanese - Americans who were US citizens who had all they owned taken away and were then put into concentration camps in the US?

I knew a man who was born in one of the camps in California. He will never forgive the US government for what they did to his family.

Yes, the U.S. gave each internee $20,000.

[meinanzi]

While it is more than overdue for the Japanese apologize, and even more to the Chinese, I am still waiting for the Americans and British to apologize, they did some real hefty war crimes as well.

We should all apologize and ask the former enemy to for pardon to move on for a better future. And even more important we should learn from it. War is very bad and we should avoid it in future -- Hello USA, you hear me --

Don't know what atrocities you are talking about but makes me wonder if you know of the 40% death rate of UN forces, primarily American, in N Korean and Chinese communist POW camps in the Korean war.

[noitom]

The Japanese owe vast apologies to the Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos , Malaysians, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Brits, Australians, French, Dutch, Americans, and all those force to labor for the death railway, Manchuria, and all the "comfort" women used for the pleasure of Japanese soldiers an bureaucrats.

[NeverSure]

I'm waiting for the Americans to apologize for all of the people they killed in Europe in response to the begging by Winston Churchill. Churchill was already learning German just in case.

The same goes for Australia.

My father was there on D-Day, suffered permanent injuries, and would be appalled at the way "some people ingrates" talk.

That's not to mention the massacre when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor killing multitudes including civilians.

NOW we get down to atrocities they committed in Asia and Australia and they had everything they got coming to them in spades.

THEN the US went in and helped rebuild Japan's economy and started buying manufactured goods. The first Japanese toy I got as a kid was made from an American beer can with the printing on the can still on the inside - can used inside out.

End of.