Forced workers plan lawsuit
Source: Xinhua |
September 7, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ABOUT 100 elderly Chinese were forced to work in Japanese mines during World War II plan to sue the Mitsubishi Materials Corp next week, their lawyer said yesterday.
The workers, all from the coastal province of Shandong, will file the lawsuit against Mitsubishi Materials and its subsidiaries in a local court before September 18, when Chinese mark the 79th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China.
The workers, all over 80, will demand an apology and compensation of 100,000 yuan (US$14,700) each from Mitsubishi Materials, said Fu Qiang, head of the Shandong Pengfei Law Office.
Laborers from Shandong made up about a quarter of the 40,000 Chinese sent to work in Japan during the war. Of those, about 7,000 died.
Mitsubishi Materials Corp forcibly took more than 2,700 Chinese to work at nine mines, Fu said. Mitsubishi contracted two mines to other Japanese companies that also used forced Chinese laborers, Fu added.
Japanese courts have rejected all compensation claims in 15 lawsuits filed over forced Chinese laborers since the 1990s, saying that individual rights of Chinese nationals for war reparations were discarded under the 1972 Japan-China joint statement.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said last November that Japan's actions to force and enslave Chinese during World War II were serious militaristic crimes as well as a grave human rights issue that has not yet been properly resolved. Qin urged the Japanese government to take a responsible attitude toward history and properly handle this issue.
A local court in Tokyo ruled in July 2001 that the Japanese government should pay 20 million Japanese yen (US$237,500) in compensation to siblings of a deceased forced laborer, Liu Lianren. But two higher courts later rejected the verdict.
Liu was taken away to work at a mine in Japan in September 1944. He fled because of maltreatment in June 1945 and lived in mountain caves for 13 years before being found and sent back to China in 1958.
The workers, all from the coastal province of Shandong, will file the lawsuit against Mitsubishi Materials and its subsidiaries in a local court before September 18, when Chinese mark the 79th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China.
The workers, all over 80, will demand an apology and compensation of 100,000 yuan (US$14,700) each from Mitsubishi Materials, said Fu Qiang, head of the Shandong Pengfei Law Office.
Laborers from Shandong made up about a quarter of the 40,000 Chinese sent to work in Japan during the war. Of those, about 7,000 died.
Mitsubishi Materials Corp forcibly took more than 2,700 Chinese to work at nine mines, Fu said. Mitsubishi contracted two mines to other Japanese companies that also used forced Chinese laborers, Fu added.
Japanese courts have rejected all compensation claims in 15 lawsuits filed over forced Chinese laborers since the 1990s, saying that individual rights of Chinese nationals for war reparations were discarded under the 1972 Japan-China joint statement.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said last November that Japan's actions to force and enslave Chinese during World War II were serious militaristic crimes as well as a grave human rights issue that has not yet been properly resolved. Qin urged the Japanese government to take a responsible attitude toward history and properly handle this issue.
A local court in Tokyo ruled in July 2001 that the Japanese government should pay 20 million Japanese yen (US$237,500) in compensation to siblings of a deceased forced laborer, Liu Lianren. But two higher courts later rejected the verdict.
Liu was taken away to work at a mine in Japan in September 1944. He fled because of maltreatment in June 1945 and lived in mountain caves for 13 years before being found and sent back to China in 1958.
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