WWII labor claim rebuffed

Representatives of forced Chinese laborers in Japan during World War II have delivered a compensation claim to Mitsubishi Materials Shanghai Corporation, asking for 376 million yuan ($61.2 million) for the victims.

Seven representatives, together with two lawyers and an interpreter, arrived at Mitsubishi Shanghai in Jing'an district Tuesday morning to demand an apology and compensation for over 3,765 victims and their families, said their lawyer Kang Jian, from Beijing Fangyuan Law Firm.

Mitsubishi Shanghai is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Materials Group, known formerly as the Mitsubishi Mining Company Ltd which was founded in 1918. 

Around 40,000 Chinese were forced to work in Japan during World War II, 7,000 of whom died there, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The victims involved in this case were abducted from China in the 1940s and worked in extreme conditions in 16 coal fields and mines Mitsubishi operated. Among the victims, 711 died in Japan due to the exploitation, while the remaining workers were sent back to China in 1945.

Pan Ying, 58, whose father died in 2008 aged 90, was abducted in July 1944. "He worked like a slave at the worksite in Hokkaido and was tortured, which left a lot of scars all over his body. It was a memory too painful to be remembered," said Pan.  

So far, neither the Japanese government nor the company has given  any apology or paid compensation to the victims, Kang said.

"At the Shanghai office, an unidentified employee rejected our claim and demand for letters of apology. He asked us to present the letters to their parent company based in Tokyo, Japan, because he did not have the right to accept them," Kang said.

Kang and the representatives believe the company is passing the buck and it does not want to take responsibility for its wartime behavior. 

Japanese courts have rejected all compensation claims in 15 lawsuits filed over forced Chinese laborers since 1995, but the Supreme Court of Japan ruled in March, 2011 that the abduction of laborers and forced labor during World War II were illegal and demanded the parties involved to mediate outside the court.

Kang admitted there are difficulties in further filing lawsuits against the company. "It's getting harder to collect evidence as more victims pass away, and there are language and communication barriers," Kang said.

Kang said they will wait a month before taking any further action.

This is the first time Mitsubishi Shanghai has met these representatives, an employee surnamed Sun told the Global Times Tuesday.

"We'll pass the information to our parent company in Japan, which has assigned someone to deal with the case," she said, adding there was no further comment on the issue.