Mitsubishi Materials, the construction arm of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, has formally extended an apology to wartime veterans whom the company forced to work as slave laborers in World War II.
Speaking at a news conference at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, Mitsubishi Materials Senior Executive Officer Hikaru Kimura said he and the company "apologize remorsefully" for using captured Americans and other prisoners of war as slave workers for Mitsubishi Mining, the company succeeded by Mitsubishi Materials, which was responsible for producing the materials used to manufacture Mitsubishi's Zero fighter aircraft used by the Japanese Navy in the early 1940s.
"Today we apologize remorsefully for the tragic events in our past," said Kimura. "Working conditions were extremely harsh and the POWs were subjected to severe hardship. As the company that succeeded Mitsubishi Mining, we cannot help feeling a deep sense of ethical responsibility for this past tragedy."
The company also apologized for not issuing a formal apology earlier. Although the Japanese government has issued several apologies for the atrocities it has committed against American, Filipino, Chinese and Korean POWs, Mitsubishi Materials is the corporation to acknowledge and apologize for the part in played during the war.
Among the 876 American POWs documented to have been enslaved by Mitsubishi Materials, 94-year-old James Murphy of Santa Monica, California, was the only one who was able to travel to Los Angeles to accept the apology, which he did with appreciation and an open heart, calling it a glorious day when Kimura spoke for the company to apologize. Murphy was captured by the Japanese and put to work in Mitsubishi Mining's Osarizawa Copper Mine before surviving the infamous Death March of Bataan in the Philippines.
"This is a glorious day," Murphy said. "For 70 years since the war ended, the prisoners of war who worked for these Japanese companies have asked for something very simple, they asked for an apology."
The apology comes just weeks before the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan, and the Japanese government has been making amends for its war crimes. The Japanese society has, in fact, taken a pacifist stance as a means to atone for its crimes.
However, in recent weeks, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been showing his determination in providing a bigger role for the Japanese military and take Japan out of its 70-year-old guilt over its crimes in World War II. Crucially, Abe had succeeded in urging the Parliament to approve a law that allows the Japanese army and navy limited powers to fight abroad if needed, something that has been prohibited by Japan's postwar constitution.
