Korean forced laborers were in a different legal situation, Japan argues, while effectively ignoring Korean claims

Japanese company Mitsubishi Materials has agreed to provide an apology and compensation to Chinese who were forced to work for the company during the Second World War. On July 19, the company also apologized to American prisoners of war who had been pressed into service, while announcing that it would also apologize to victims from various countries, including the United Kingdom. But the company is declining to apologize or offer compensation to Koreans who were forced to work there, claiming that their situation was different.

On July 23, Mitsubishi Materials concluded negotiations with a group of Chinese victims of forced labor by agreeing to apologize and pay 2 million yen (US,150) per person to 3,765 Chinese who were conscripted during the war and forced to work in 12 mines operated by the company, according to a report by Japanese wire service Kyodo News.

“”In addition to the apology and payment of compensation, Mitsubishi Materials also agreed to pay 100 million yen (US7,700) and 200 million yen (UStpf=board/list&board_code=11.62 million) for building a memorial for the Chinese victims of forced labor and for carrying out an investigation into conscripted individuals who went missing,” the wire service said.

“The two sides agreed to meet in Beijing next month around the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II to sign the final reconciliation agreement.”

The negotiations were initiated in Jan. 2014.

This is the biggest settlement that a Japanese corporation has ever granted Chinese victims of forced labor.

The China News Service and the China Daily reported that this is the first time that Mitsubishi Materials will make an apology and offer compensation since a Japanese court rejected a lawsuit filed by Chinese victims of forced labor and that this is also the largest agreement in terms of the number of plaintiffs.

Before Mitsubishi Materials agreed on July 23 to apologize and pay compensation to Chinese who were forced to work for it during World War II, it appears to have been in contact with the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which is currently working to improve the country’s relations with China.

“When Japanese companies make this kind of decision, they are immediately attacked by the right wing. For this reason it appears that Mitsubishi Materials held preliminary consultations with the Liberal Democratic Party about this issue,” said Hideki Yano, secretary general of the National Network for Prosecuting Those Guilty of Compulsory Detention, a Japanese civic group, during a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on July 24.

“The Japanese government would like to avoid commenting about legal proceedings between Chinese individuals and Japanese companies. The government position continues to be that all claims regarding the war between Japan and China have been null and void since the proclamation of the joint statement between the two countries in 1972,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga during the regular press briefing on July 24.

While Mitsubishi Materials has recently announced its plans to apologize and provide compensation to Americans and Chinese who were conscripted into forced labor, it is refusing to do the same for Korean victims, arguing that they have a different legal status. The Japanese government adheres to the position that the compulsory mobilization of Koreans living under colonial rule was a legal action that was sanctioned by the National Mobilization Law, which took effect in 1938.

The Japanese government made a similar claim during a debate about registering Hashima Island, also known as Battleship Island, and other sites as UNESCO World Cultural Heritages. At the time, it made the farfetched argument that South Koreans had not done “forced labor,” which is illegal according to the conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), even while admitting that they had been “forced to work.”

In contrast, the Chinese victims of forced labor had been Kuomintang soldiers captured by the Japanese army – a significant difference, the Japanese government contends.

In Nov. 2008, a Japanese court ruled against the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by eight members of the Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps who were forced to work at the airplane manufacturing facility in Nagoya, Japan, which was operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

At present, eleven lawsuits in which South Korean victims of forced labor are claiming compensation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fujikoshi, and Nippon Steel are being reviewed by courts in South Korea.

Some diplomats suspect that Japan is taking different diplomatic tacks with China and South Korea.

“Basically, while arguing that the legal status of South Korea and China was clearly different during World War II, Japan seems to be aiming to improve relations with China and to ignore South Korea,” one diplomatic source said.

“For Japan, the main diplomatic dispute with South Korea is the question of the comfort women, and the question of forced labor is a secondary one. Because of the perception that resolving the forced labor question will not fundamentally resolve bilateral relations, Japan appears to be taking a very passive stance on the issue.”

Japan also appears to be hoping to create a favorable mood in China and Western countries, which will pay close attention to the statement that Abe will make this August.

While offering an official apology on July 19 to American prisoners of war who were forced to work for the company, Mitsubishi Materials said that it would like to offer the same apology to prisoners of war from the UK, the Netherlands, and Australia.

For this reason, some analysts think there is a high probability that Abe’s statement will ignore South Korea’s demands for an apology for its colonial rule and wars of aggression and instead focus on apologizing for the war that it waged against China, the US, the UK, and other members of the Allies.

“China is probably as far as Japanese companies will go in apologizing and paying compensation to foreign victims of forced labor,” one expert on Japan said.

By Seong Yeon-cheol and Gil Yun-hyung, Beijing and Tokyo correspondents

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