700 WWII workers file lawsuit in China
Print Edition
ABOUT 700 people forced to work in Japan during World War II filed a lawsuit in east China’s Shandong Province yesterday, demanding an apology and compensation from two China-based Japanese companies.
Four representatives of the former workers signed a letter authorizing a legal aid team to file the lawsuit at Shandong Higher People’s Court.
Mitsubishi Corporation (Qingdao) Ltd and Yantai Mitsubishi Cement Co Ltd, which are accused of forcing laborers from Shandong to Japan to work during the war, are being sued for a million yuan (US$160,700) for each victim. The workers also want a written apology published in major newspapers in China, said Fu Qiang, executive head of the legal aid team.
Fu said the two Mitsubishi companies are not directly connected but affiliated to the original perpetrator, Mitsubishi Materials Corp in Japan.
“The two companies are foreign-owned enterprises in China, and subject to Chinese law,” Fu said.
This is the second time the workers have brought a complaint to court.
In September 2010, six of them, on behalf of 1,000 Chinese from Shandong, brought a lawsuit against the two companies. However, the court refused to accept the case.
Around 40,000 Chinese, 10,000 of them from Shandong, were forced to work in Japan during the war. Of the total, 7,000 died in Japan.
Quoting government figures, Wang Wanying, one of the four representatives and son of a victim, said that of 1,500 workers taken to Japan from Shandong’s Yuncheng County, only 130 returned alive.
“My father was lucky enough to survive,” said 55-year-old Wang. “We will carry on to seek justice,” he said.
On March 26, nine former workers filed a lawsuit seeking compensation from Coke Industry Co Ltd of Japan, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and the Japanese government at Tangshan City Intermediate People’s Court. A decision to accept the case has not yet been made.
On March 18, the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court accepted a lawsuit against Coke Industry and Mitsubishi Materials over the matter, the first such case to be accepted in China.
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