Jan. 2001 - Philippine Defenders Main

EX-POWS TO APPEAL FOR
WAR REPARATIONS
6 — THE QUAN
By CHRISTINE MAHR
The Desert Sun
Former prisoners of war seeking retribution
from Japanese companies for alleged
slave labor haven’t lost their battle yet.
On one front, their attorneys have filed a
notice of intent to appeal the September ruling
by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn
Walker, who dismissed their suits.
On another, the former POWs have
received the support of the U.S. Senate, which
this week unanimously adopted a resolution
urging the federal government to help bring
about talks between the veterans and private
Japanese companies that allegedly profited
from their labor during World War II.
The resolution was introduced by Sens.
Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Orrin
Hatch, R-Utah.
“This is significant; you have a Republi can
and a Democrat coming together and saying
it’s the right thing to do,” said James
Parkinson, a Palm Desert attorney.
Parkinson is working with Herman,
Middleton, Casey and Kitchens, the San
Diego law firm that filed many of the suits
on behalf of people who allege Japanese
companies forced them to work in mines and
factories during World War II.
Parkinson represents several former
POWs including Indio resident Alfred
Berest.
Berest still questions whether the ex-prisoners
will ever get the justice they’re seeking,
but he was pleased by the Senate’s
action on their behalf.
“I was surprised and elated,” he said.
The Senate’s resolution runs counter to
the position of the federal government, which
had urged Walker to dismiss the POW suits.
Parkinson said the Senate resolution
won’t have any impact on the court case.
But, he said, it could lead to efforts by the
government to intervene on behalf of the
POWs as it did in recent claims raised by
Holocaust survivors against German corporations
that used slave labor.
The government took no position in the
Holocaust litigation but did help initiate
talks between the German companies and
the victims.
“This (Senate resolution) says to the government,
‘Why don’t you do the right thing
and bring the parties together, like you did
with the Holocaust victims?’ ” Parkinson
said.
In its statement in the federal court case
dismissed by Walker, the U.S. Justice
Department said the POWs’ claims are barred
by the 1951 peace treaty with Japan.
Attorneys for the Japanese corporations
that were sued said the 1951 treaty basically
settled any disputes with Japan.
Christine Mahr covers courts for The
Desert Sun. She can be reached at 775-4207
or at
Christine.Mahr@thedesertsun.com.
JAPANESE WWII SOLDIER
DETAILS GERM PRODUCTION
IN TOKYO COURT TESTIMONY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — In the first testimony of its
kind, a former Japanese soldier has told a
Tokyo court that he helped produce deadly
germs and participated in biological experiments
in China during World War II.
Yoshio Shinozuka, 77, said he participated
in the mass production of cholera,
dysentery and typhoid germs. He said he
also assisted in the vivisection of Chinese
civilians in the early 1940s.
“What I have done was something that
nobody should have done as a human
being. I cannot escape that responsibility,”
he said recently.
Though Shinozuka has spoken out
publicly about his role, his testimony
makes him the first member of the notorious
Unit 731 to acknowledge before a
court its role in Japan’s biological warfare
in northern China. He was called as a witness
for nearly 180 Chinese suing the
Japanese government for compensation
and an apology for the deaths of family
members allegedly killed by the unit’s
activities.
The trial at the Tokyo District Court is
expected to continue for several more
months.
Shinozuka said he was often told to help
out departments that needed to boost
germ production for upcoming deployments,
including the 1939 Nomonhan
attack near Mongolia and several other
germ bombing attacks in southern China
in the 1940s.
He said that just before the 1939
Nomonhan attack, he was responsible for
transferring dysentery and typhoid germs
from test tubes to bigger jars, packing
them into barrels, sealing them and taking
them to a night train for the attack.
Although some Japanese veterans have
confessed to war crimes in recent years,
the Japanese government has shied away
from making apologies to China. Japanese
textbooks still often present only brief,
perfunctory accounts of Japan’s aggression
in East Asia from the mid-1930s to
the war’s end in 1945.
shinozuka said one of his reasons for
testifying was disappointment with the
government’s efforts to come clean about
the war.
“I committed all these war crimes
because I was ordered to do so,” he said.
“The government should try to learn about
the victims. I really think it’s time for
Japan to face this issue with humanitarian
consideration.”
BRITAIN TO PAY FORMER
PRISONERS OF JAPANESE
LONDON, Nov. 7 (AP) — Thousands of
British servicemen held prisoner by the
Japanese during World War II will receive
payments of $15,000 each, the government
announced today, decades after the soldiers
first began seeking compensation for
their suffering.
The payment plan, announced by
Defense Minister Lewis Moonie, will cover
up to 16,700 former prisoners including
camp survivors and their widows.
Successive British governments had
resisted paying the former POWs compensation,
not wanting to open the door to
other such claims. But Mr. Moonie said
the “unique circumstances of their cap -
tivity” warranted an exception.
Noting that more than 12,400 of the
50,016 British service personnel reported
captured by the Japanese died in cap -
tivity, Mr. Moonie said the prisoners’
experiences were “often so appalling that
… it has remained with them for the rest
of their lives.”
During the war, Japan made slave
laborers of Allied POWs in Asia, forcing
them to work under brutal conditions in
jungles, mines and shipyards. Beating,
starvation and executions were common.
The POW death rate in Japanese camps
was 27 percent, compared to a 4 percent
rate in Allied camps.
Efforts to win compensation from Japan
through its court system were unsuccessful.
In 1998, a Tokyo court rejected their
demands, saying compensation issues
were settled by postwar treaties.
—————————
SENATE:
SETTLE POW LAWSUITS
The Senate is urging the Clinton administration
to help negotiate a settlement to
lawsuits brought by American World War
II POWs who contend Japanese com -
panies mistreated them as slave laborers.
Administration officials say the former
prisoners’ lawsuits against the private
companies are prohibited under a 1951
peace treaty between the United States
and Japan.
But the Senate voted unanimously late
Tuesday to urge the State Department to
open a dialogue between veterans and the
companies because prisoners were forced
to work for years while being beaten,
starved and denied medical care.
The recommendation came in a nonbinding
resolution that doesn’t require
President Clinton’s signature. The vote
sent it to the House for consideration.
Neither the Japanese Embassy nor the
White House returned calls seeking
comment. But administration officials
have opposed similar legislation in the
past.