Japanese firm in forced labor deal
Print Edition
MITSUBISHI Materials Corp, one of dozens of Japanese companies that used Chinese forced labor during World War II, yesterday reached a settlement covering thousands of victims that includes compensation and an apology.
The deal was signed in Beijing with three former workers representing the company’s more than 3,000 Chinese victims of forced labor, Mitsubishi Materials said in a statement.
The victims were among about 40,000 Chinese sent to Japan to work in factories and mines during World War II to fill a manpower shortage arising from Japan’s massive military mobilisation as it invaded China and countries in Southeast Asia.
Many died due to violence and malnutrition amid harsh treatment by the Japanese.
The victims were forced to work at 10 coal mines operated by Mitsubishi Mining Corp, as Mitsubishi Materials was known at the time.
Under the settlement, Mitsubishi Materials will pay 100,000 yuan (US$15,000) to each of the victims and their families.
Mitsubishi Materials said it would try to locate all the victims, with payments believed to amount to 370 million yuan (US$56 million) if all come forward.
At the signing ceremony, the company “expressed its sincere apologies regarding its historical responsibility to the former laborers and the apologies were accepted by the three former laborers,” a statement from the company said.
Mitsubishi Materials also said it would construct memorials at the sites where the company’s mines were located and organize memorial ceremonies.
The settlement comes two years after several groups representing the victims and their families filed a lawsuit.
The sides negotiated a deal, though one of the groups, representing 37 plaintiffs, rejected the settlement that was finally reached, according to Japan’s Kyodo News agency.
Japan’s government has long insisted that all wartime compensation issues were “settled” under postwar peace treaties, and that China waived its right to pursue compensation under the 1972 treaty with Japan that established diplomatic relations between Beijing and Tokyo.
Lawsuits filed in Japan by Chinese and Korean victims of Japanese wartime aggression, including former forced laborers and sex slaves, had previously been rejected.
Japan’s foreign ministry acknowledged the country’s wartime use of Chinese forced labor after wartime documents were found in the early 1990s.
Yesterday’s settlement is the first that Mitsubishi Materials has reached with former forced laborers. At least two other Japanese construction companies — Kajima Corp and Nishimatsu Co — have taken similar steps to compensate victims.
Last year, Mitsubishi Materials apologized for its treatment of former US prisoners of war, also used as forced labor.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
