Subject: [cwj 35] Japan Companies Named in Slave Labor Suit
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 13:51:28 -0700
Seq: 35
Japanese corporations forced more than 1 million (mostly Chinese and Korean) workers to work at their factories in Japan and outside. Justice has not yet been served, with the Japanese government and judiciary siding with the corporations in denying responsibility and compensation. Unfortunately, time is running out as many of these workers used as slaves by corporations are dying. The companies know this and are stalling, thinking the problem will go away. However, the movement for holding these corporations accountable for their actions during WWII is getting stronger- with the new California amendment as well as the (unsatisfactory but welcome) settlement in Germany by corporations this year for using Jews as slave labor during WWII. Two major US companies, Ford and General Motors, are also being sued for using slave labor in Gernamy. For more info on forced labor and Japanese corporations, see http://www.corpwatch.org/japan/domestic/#corphr Amit Wednesday June 7 9:41 PM ET Japan Cos. Named in Slave Labor Suit LOS ANGELES (AP) - Six big Japanese companies and hundreds of their subsidiaries doing business in California are named in a lawsuit by a Filipino man seeking compensation for enslavement, forced labor, torture and starvation during World War II. Perfecto Llanza, 74, seeks class-action status for the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. A California law specifically allows people who claim to have been forced into slave to seek reparations from companies that profited from their work and now do business in California. Japanese soldiers turned Filipino civilians and prisoners of war over to the companies to serve as unpaid labor for mining, shipbuilding, steelmaking and other purposes, the suit says. Many workers died while being transported by sea or rail in hot, crowded conditions, and others were held in concentration camps between 1941 and 1945 without adequate food or medical aid under threat of death if they did not work, the suit says. The lawsuit does not specify the amount of compensation being sought. Defendants include Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui Mining Co. Ltd, Mitsui & Co. (USA), Mitsui Mining USA Inc., Nippon Steel Corp., Nippon Steel USA and up to 2,000 subsidiaries. Calls to Mitsubishi in New York and Mitsui Mining USA in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance seeking comment on the suit were not immediately returned. The Japanese government was not named. The suit says Llanza was forced to work on Mitsubishi Corp. construction projects from April 1942 to June 1944. 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. ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________