Chinese Émigrés Sue Japanese Companies
September 28, 2000
Reparations for WWII slavery sought
By Linda Deutsch/AP
Lawyers pursuing reparations for World War II atrocities sued two Japanese conglomerates on Aug. 22 on behalf of Chinese people used as slave labor.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, names Mitsui and Mitsubishi groups as companies which used slave laborers to produce rubber, grain and coal during a period beginning in the 1930s and continuing until the war ended in 1945.
Barry A. Fisher, a lawyer involved in reparation suits in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, said the suit involving the Chinese and subsequent actions that are likely to involve Koreans may be even larger than the claims made against European companies. He said tens or hundreds of thousands of people may eventually be involved.
“This is a suit on behalf of Chinese people victimized during the war,” Fisher said during a news conference. “There were millions of them and hundreds of thousands are still surviving … In many ways, what the Japanese did far outdistanced the Germans. In the area of biological and chemical warfare, they outdistanced the Germans in atrocities.”
Fisher said the atrocities committed against the Chinese included sending children to work in coal mines, and transporting victims in ships and trains under inhuman conditions.
“Chinese citizens were herded like cattle into trains and loaded into cargo ships,” he said, adding that many died aboard ship and their corpses were tossed overboard.
“During their forced servitude in Japan, the Chinese workers were tortured and starved,” the lawsuit said.
Messages requesting comment on the suit were left on phone machines at a Cypress, Calif., office of Mitsubishi, and the New York headquarters of Mitsui.
Fisher was joined at the news conference by three recent Chinese émigrés to the United States who said they were forced into slavery as small children.
Huang Boshi, 70, said she was only five years old when she became a laborer. She said she is the only survivor of her family, and recalled through tears that 11 of 18 close family members died in her Chinese village.
She spoke in Chinese, which was translated by Ignatius Y. Ding of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia. A simultaneous news conference was scheduled in Beijing, where other plaintiffs live. Ding said those who appeared at the Los Angeles news conference came to California four years ago with their children.
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court under a law passed by California last year that allows cases involving World War II slave labor to be filed until the year 2010.
Fisher said the suit seeks payment for labor that was never compensated as well as damages. The suit asks for the companies to turn over “ill-gotten gains” from that era.
The suits by Holocaust victims against Swiss banks and German and Austrian companies arising out of the use of slave labor by Nazi Germany have been settled for a total payment of between $6 billion and $7 billion.
Fisher said he hoped Mitsui and Mitsubishi would settle the lawsuit amicably.
“It’s in the best interest of Japan and the companies. The sooner this is settled in an amicable out-of-court way, the better for the future of relations between China, Japan and Korea,” he said.
The suit did not name the Japanese government as a defendant
Ding said the companies involved have already claimed that their current leadership does not bear responsibility for wartime abuses. But he said that has already been disproved in cases in other countries.
“These companies, even if they change their names, cannot escape responsibility,” Ding said.
The lawsuit may come to include other Japanese firms as well, he said, noting that researchers have already identified 135 Japanese companies that used slave labor.
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