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Survivors of Japan's WWII POW Death Camps Commend Japanese Prime Minister for Admitting Use of POW Slave Labor

Posted on: Thursday, 8 January 2009, 10:47 CST

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, January 6th, the Japanese Prime Minister acknowledged to members of Japan's Parliament that his family-owned coal mine used Allied Prisoner of War slave labor during World War II.

Lester Tenney, Commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) says:

"The Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso is to be commended for his courage for setting the record straight about his company's use of POW forced labor."

Mr. Aso's statement is the first admission by any senior Japanese government or industry official that private Japanese companies used forced labor to maintain production during the Pacific War. Three hundred British, Australian, and Dutch POWs labored in the Aso family coal mine. More than 27,000 Americans -- possibly as many as 36,000 -- were captured by Japan, most early in World War II. Held in brutal captivity, these POWs provided slave labor for at least 50 private Japanese companies including Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, and Hitachi.

Tenney now hopes "corporate heads come forward with their own company's records of POW forced labor."

He called upon Prime Minister Aso to "go the next step and issue an apology to the POWs, which can set the example for Japan's companies to emulate."

He sees Aso's admission as "long overdue." But Tenney recognizes it as "an important first step for Japan to take toward issuing apologies and offering outreach programs to the American POWs." Tenney notes that Japan has offered both to other Allied POWs. He finds it "incomprehensible and offensive that only American POWs have been excluded."

It also was revealed that boxes of files on Allied POWs are in the basement of the Health, Labor, & Welfare Ministry. Tenney demanded, "the immediate release of these documents so that families can learn more about their loved ones who toiled in horrific conditions for Japan." POW forced labor for Japan's war industries was a violation of the Geneva Convention. Dr. Tenney is a survivor of three years in a Mitsui coal mine.

The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) is a veteran's organization representing the survivors and families of those who were POWs of the Japanese.

Lester Tenney, ADBC Commander, is available for media interviews at: (760) 704-1106.

Contact: Mindy Kotler (202) 822-6040 access@jiaponline.org

SOURCE American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor

Source: PR Newswire

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