Japanese
company says it will pay victims and their families as ‘proof’ of apology in
the biggest deal of its kind yet
A Japanese company that used Chinese forced labour in
its coalmines during the second world war has agreed to compensate and
apologise to thousands of victims and their families.
Mitsubishi Materials, one of dozens of Japanese
companies that used such labourers from China and the Korean peninsula, said it would pay
100,000 yuan (US$15,000) to each of the surviving victims and the families of
those who have died.
If all 3,765 people entitled to
compensation come forward, the total payout could reach US$56m, making it the
biggest deal of its kind so far.
Mitsubishi Materials said it would
try to locate all the survivors, adding that it would erect memorials at the
sites where its mines were located.
“We have come to the conclusion that we
will extend an apology [to the victims] and offer the money as a proof of that
apology,” a Mitsubishi Materials spokesman said.
The company signed the agreement in
Beijing with three former workers representing thousands of Chinese who had
been forcibly put to work in coalmines in Japan that
were run by Mitsubishi Mining, as the company was known at the time.
The victims hailed the decision a
victory in their long quest for Japanese companies to take responsibility for
bringing an estimated 40,000 Chinese to Japan between
1943 and 1945 to work in factories and mines amid a wartime labour shortage.
“Our forced labor case today has finally
come to a resolution. We have won this case. This is a big victory that merits
a celebration,” Yan Yucheng, 87, a former labourer, said in the Chinese
capital.
Some of the relatives of former
labourers, however, were concerned the settlement was in lieu of official
compensation from the Japanese government, which insists that all reparation
claims were covered by postwar treaties with former victims of Japanese
militarism.
Tokyo has also said China waived
its right to claim compensation when the countries established diplomatic
relations in 1972.
Kang Jian, a lawyer who represents some
of the plaintiffs, said: “The company did it not for reconciliation, but to try
to relieve the pressure on the Japanese government.”
Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the
Chinese foreign ministry, said: “The forced recruitment of slave labour was a
great crime committed by Japan. China urges Japan to adopt a responsible
attitude and properly handle the relevant issue of history.”
As part of its first settlement with
former forced labourers, Mitsubishi Materials offered its “sincere apologies
regarding its historical responsibility to the former labourers” and promised
to “continue to seek a comprehensive and permanent solution with all of its
former labourers and their families”.
It is not the only Japanese company to
have recognised its role in the wartime forced labour system.
The construction companies Kajima and
Nishimatsu have also offered compensation, and in 2015 Mitsubishi Materials
became the first major Japanese company to apologise for its brutal treatment
of hundreds of US prisoners of war who were made to work at four of its mines.
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