Subject: [cwj 84] Chinese turn to US courts to sue Japanese over war crimes
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 13:42:53 -0700
Seq: 84
For more info on forced labor and Japanese corporations, see http://www.corpwatch.org/japan/domestic/#corphr Wednesday, August 23 7:10 PM SGT Chinese turn to US courts to sue Japanese over war crimes BEIJING, Aug 23 (AFP) - Elderly Chinese victims of Japanese World War II aggression said Wednesday they are suing Japanese companies in American courts because they have no faith in the legal systems of Japan and China. Four Chinese Americans and five Chinese nationals sued Japanese conglomerates Mitsubishi and Mitsui on Tuesday in Los Angeles, claiming the companies enslaved thousands of Chinese citizens during World War II. "I have felt vicimized by these injustices my entire adult life, now I'm old and I can't wait for justice forever," Hou Shulin, 73, said. Hou, one of the five Chinese plaintiffs, was kidnapped by the Japanese Army from his home in northern Hebei province in 1994 and shipped in a cargo hold to Japan where he was forced to work in a Mitsui-owned coal mine. He and other victims of Japanese aggression met journalisits in Beijing and recounted horrifying stories of mistreatment as well as their efforts to seek compensation for war crimes. "If Japan would formally apologize to me, compensate me for the loss of my father and agree to build memorials to their crimes in Japan and China, then I wouldn't sue," said Wang Qizhen, whose father was killed in the Mitsui mine in Wang hopes to represent his father, if the Los Angeles County Superior Court rules that the case should be considered a class action suit representing all those forced into labor by Mitsui or Mitsubishi. Over 40,000 Chinese are believed to have been enslaved into Japanese work camps during the war, with 5,782 documented cases of workers forced into slavery by Mitsui and some 2,100 by Mitsubishi, Wang Xuan, a Chinese activist seeking war compensation in a wide range of cases said. Wang, along with Chinese lawyer Sun Jing, has been working with American lawyer Barry Fisher and other US lawyers who brought the case to trial in Los Angeles. Some of the lawyers have participated in cases against Swiss banks and German and Austrian companies for use of slave labor by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in settlements totalling between six and seven billion dollars. A California law passed in 1999 that allows cases arising out of World War II slave labor issues to be filed until 2010, has been crucial in bringing the lawsuit to the US, while courts in Japan and China are too politically controlled to result in a favorable verdict, Wang said. "I helped bring a suit against the Japanese military's 731 biological warfare unit on behalf of Chongsan village, Zhejiang province in a Tokyo court in August 1997," Wang said. "Since then there have been 15 oral proceedings and the case has gone nowhere, while about 10 percent of the 108 plaintiffs have already passed away," she said. Wang said there are at least 10 cases of Chinese war victims seeking compensation in Tokyo courts, including several cases dealing with "comfort women" or women forced into sex slavery. Few are making any progress. Most of the cases have been brought to trial by Japanese lawyers who are part of a grassroots organization called the International Citizens Forum on War Crimes and War Responsibility. The lawyers have done extensive research in China and conducted wide ranging interviews with war victims. Chinese courts have yet to accept civil cases suing for compensation over Japanese war crimes, following a commitment made in 1971 not to seek government-to-government compensation from Japan. Fisher likened the forced labor operation to the African slave trade of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. "The Japanese during the war, and actually before the war in Asia, were running the largest slave ship operation in world history since the African slave trade," he said. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. 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