EDITORIAL: Chinese forced laborers

How should private companies take responsibility for their wartime actions? Albeit being far too late, one company has shown one course of action.

Nishimatsu Construction Co. has agreed on a settlement with the Chinese who were forcibly brought to Japan during World War II and forced into hard labor at a construction site in Hiroshima Prefecture. For those victims already deceased, their families took part in the settlement.

Nishimatsu will set up a 250-million-yen trust fund to compensate 360 victims for forced labor. This will break down to about 700,000 yen each. The company will admit its historical responsibility and also erect a memorial.

In April 2007, the Supreme Court rejected the five plaintiffs' lawsuit against the company, ruling that an individual's right to demand compensation by legal action had been waived by the Japan-China Joint Communique. At the same time, the court noted that it hoped the parties involved would work toward providing relief for the victims.

Nishimatsu's decision was a result of this court opinion. The company also sought to improve its image after a political funds scandal tarnished its corporate reputation. In a similar settlement in 2000, major contractor, Kajima Corp., set up a 500-million-yen fund to compensate laborers who were forced to work near the site of the former Hanaoka mine in Akita Prefecture.

Due to Prime Minister Hideki Tojo's Cabinet decree of 1942, roughly 40,000 Chinese were forcibly brought to Japan to work at 135 locations. Since the 1990s, there have been a spate of lawsuits demanding retribution from companies and the government. But since the 2007 Supreme Court ruling, courts have ruled against the plaintiffs.

It has been 64 years since the end of the war. Something must be done about the fact the victims die without having seen their suffering addressed. We want all of the companies involved to apologize and to offer compensation. Although the courts ruled they are not legally liable, surely they bear a heavy social responsibility for their past actions.

Moreover, it is the government that must act. Government involvement in the forced labor of the Chinese is quite apparent.

Another company that was sued together with the government argued that it "cannot agree to offer compensation as long as the government does not act."

The Hatoyama administration must seize the moment to make a clear apology and move toward compensation from a moral standpoint.

We believe the government should propose to the companies involved and the victims the creation of a joint fund framework into which the government and companies can all contribute.

This may not be a satisfactory solution for the victims. However, the fact that the Japanese government shows its resolution not to avert its eyes from its history as an aggressor and to assume its responsibilities may be the necessary steps toward reconciliation.

Appeals for wartime reparation from abroad still continue, and the legal cases are not limited to Chinese victims of hard labor.

The government under the Liberal Democratic Party had always refused to compensate individuals, claiming "the issue of reparations for wartime acts have all been resolved through diplomatic negotiations." Legal redress has also been blocked by the Supreme Court. On the other hand, when it was still an opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan listened seriously to the victims' pleas and proposed various bills for their redress.

"The new government has the courage to face up to history," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said earlier.

What is required next is the courage to act.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 24(IHT/Asahi: October 26,2009)