Mitsubishi to make up for WWII labour

TOKYO: Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials will offer compensation and apology to Chinese forced labourers it used during the World War II, according to Japan’s Kyodo News, citing sources directly involved in the issue.

If realised, it will mark the first positive step by the company to seek reconciliation with Chinese forced labour victims.

The planned apology to Chinese forced labourers, although not been confirmed by the company immediately after Kyodo’s report, came after its unprecedented apology on Sunday to US prisoners of war (POW) used as forced labour by the company.

According a Japanese government report, a total of 3,765 Chinese nationals were used as forced labour in 12 mining sites belonging to Mitsubishi Materials in wartime and about 720 of them died at that time.

The plan reportedly said that the company will offer all the 3,765 Chinese with a compensation of ¥2mil (RM61,502) for each and sincere apology for its wartime wrongdoings to the victims.

Mitsubishi Materials will also erect a memorial monument and spend about ¥200mil (RM6.15mil) to handle relevant issues, according to the Kyodo report.

The report said that Mitsubishi Materials and the group of Chinese plaintiffs reached an agreement to settle the forced labour case through the compensation and apology plan.

Previous lawsuits filed by Chinese victims were all rejected by Japanese courts.

About 40,000 Chinese were forcibly taken or kidnapped to Japan during World War II and were enslaved as forced labour and about 7,000 of them died.

Japan’s ties with China and South Korea, which suffered most from Japan’s wartime atrocities, are frayed partially for historical issues, including the compensation and apology to the two countries’ forced labourers used by Japanese companies.

Japan and South Korea were at odds when Japan recently tried to enlist a series of its Meiji-era industrial sites on the UN world heritage list as Japan is reluctant to admit that a number of South Korean slave labourers were used in the candidate sites.

It is unclear that what will be the Japanese government’s comments on the Mitsubishi’s move and whether the Mitsubishi move would set an example for other Japanese companies involved in the forced labour issue to give apology to all the victims.

Earlier reports also said that Mitsubishi Materials will apologise to former British, Dutch and Australian WWII POWs. — China Daily / Asia News Network