An apology has been issued by Japanese corporation, Mitsubishi, for its use of American prisoners of war during World War Two. The prisoners were used for forced labour at Mitsubishi factories throughout Japan.
It has been said that the use of the prisoners of war was deemed necessary to fill positions in companies struggling to cope with a labour shortage. Most of this was due to conscription, introduced into Japan in 1939.
Hikaru Kimura, a senior executive of the company, issued the landmark apology, which is the first apology of its kind by a Japanese company. It comes seventy years after the end of World War Two, a conflict that took the lives of more people than any other war in human history.
Remarkably, one American prisoner of war, who was himself coerced into working for the multinational conglomerate during the war, was present at the apology. James Murphy, aged 94, told the BBC it was “a glorious day” in history.
“For 70 years we wanted this. I listened very carefully to Mr Kimura’s statement of apology and found it very very sincere, humble and revealing,” said Murphy.
Murphy described the experience as nothing short of “a complete horror”. It was “slavery in every way: no food, no medicine, no clothing, no sanitation”.
Six Japanese prisoner-of-war camps have been linked to the Mitsubishi group during the war. The camps held 2041 prisoners, more than 1000 of whom were American.
Yukio Okamoto, an outside director of the company, has told the Associated Press that Mitsubishi hopes to also apologise to British, Dutch and Australian prisoners of war.
“If there is such an opportunity, we will do the same apology … What other companies will do, we don’t know … Ours is one of those who tortured POWs most, so we have to apologize.”
It is not yet known whether this will begin a trend of apologies from other Japanese companies that were involved in similar practices. The United States has remained defiant in not issuing an apology for its use of nuclear weaponry against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.