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Mixed Reactions to Wartime Slavery Settlement

Former forced laborers and prisoners of Japan during World War II.

By Joseph Hong

A landmark class-action settlement between Japan-based Kajima Corporation and nearly 1,000 Chinese nationals, whom the company imprisoned in labor camps during World War II, may set a precedent for other groups seeking reparations for Japanese wartime atrocities. However, some activists are questioning whether the agreement went far enough.

On Nov. 29 Kajima Corporation, the largest general contractor in Japan, agreed to donate $4.6 million to the Chinese Red Cross, which will then distribute the money to 986 Chinese survivors — or their relatives. Of Kajima’s Chinese labor pool, it is estimated more than half died at the company’s Hanaoka mines.

“I think it’s a very honorable and good example set by the Kajima company and follows on the coattail of what the German companies did,” said David Casey, an attorney who is representing 25,000 U.S. prisoner of war and their heirs against Japanese corporations like Mitsubishi and Mitsui.

Ignatius Ding, activist for the Global Alliance for Preserving the Truth of the Sino-Japanese War.

On the other hand, Ingatius Ding, of the Bay Area-based Global Alliance for Preserving the Truth of the Sino-Japanese War, said most of the victims are far from satisfied. Ding is in contact with many Chinese survivors, as well as the Japanese representative for the 11 former laborers who filed the case against Kajima Corporation in Japanese courts in 1995. Ding pointed out what he sees as flaws of the agreement, namely that “Kajima doesn’t accept any responsibility” for its actions during the war, and that “whether those listed on the suit decide to take the money or not, they cannot file a case anywhere else.”

“The Kajima case is very complicated and it’s not available to the American press,” he said.

The settlement directly compensates the original 11 plaintiffs, who will receive 30 percent of the $4.6 million (or $1.38 million) directly from Kajima Corporation. The 975 others named in the suit will get the remaining 70 percent. Of those 975, almost none had ever been consulted while the suit was being settled, and most had refused the agreement offer, Ding explained.

In August of 1944, the 986 Chinese named in the suit were forcefully taken from Chinese villages to the Hanaoka labor camp in Japan, operated by Kajima-gumi, the predecessor of Kajima Corporation, to help redirect the flow of a river. It is widely believed that within a year, a large number of laborers died due to beatings, malnutrition, lack of medical care and disease.

In June 30, 1945 the remaining laborers rebelled against their captors, resulting in the deaths of four Japanese mine officials and one Chinese worker. As punishment, police and Kajima employees tortured to death 113 Chinese rebels. Some were beaten to death with sledgehammers, Ding said, while others had water forced down their throats as police and Kajima officials jumped on their stomachs.

The Chinese American organizer said almost all of the former victims he has talked to would forego monetary compensation if Kajima and other Japanese corporations admitted responsibility, publicly apologized, and erected a memorial in honor of former slave laborers at labor camp sites. Despite their anger over the terms of the settlement, many are poor villagers and therefore, will likely accept the money, according to Ding. Moreover, since many of the former laborers are now in their 80s, it is doubtful they could pursue another drawn-out battle in Japanese courts and live to see a victory.

“The settlement says Kajima is sympathetic to the plight of these former workers due to wartime conditions and diseases,” Ding said. “This is a fairly obnoxious statement. They purposely avoid any mention of workers being beaten to death or dying because of the treatment at the camp … They admit no liability.”

Attorney Casey, though, said the agreement was significant. He explained that when American corporations pay a settlement, “it’s often coupled with a complete denial that they were responsible … I think the money speaks for itself.”

He added: “We have records of what the Japanese did and eventually we will get it fully disclosed in the public.”

In dozens of U.S. and overseas court cases pending, attorneys in the United States are hoping to reach settlements with Japanese and German corporations involved in forced labor during World War II. Other than the Kajima agreement, only three settlements with Japanese corporations have been reached, all involving Korean forced labor. Japanese corporations have historically used the courts to throw out similar cases due to a statute of limitation law passed by the Japanese Diet. Similarly, the Japanese government has dismissed reparation cases on the basis that Japan’s postwar peace treaties absolved the country of its war crimes.

“Anytime one of these slave labor cases gets settled it’s groundbreaking because the odds are so much against it…” said Jonathon Levy, a California attorney who has represented organizations and individuals in a variety of Holocaust related lawsuits including banking, insurance, and slave labor matters.