Mitsubishi Materials Apology to the American POWs

See Michael John Grist's incredible photos
of the ruins of MMC's Osarizawa Copper Mine

On Sunday, July 19, 2015, at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, Mitsubishi Materials Company (MMC) plans to offer an apology to the American POWs who slaved in four of their mines on mainland Japan during WWII.

This is significant and important.


Mitsubishi Materials Company, the successor to Mitsubishi Mining, is the first and only Japanese company among the nearly 60 that used and abused POW slave labor to offer a formal public apology to either American or Allied POWs. Nearly all these 1940s companies still exist, still are related to the same wartime company, and still operate similar facilities at the POW camp sites. To our knowledge, MMC is not planning apologies to their British, Australian, Dutch, Canadian, New Zealand, and South African POW slave laborers. It is also unknown how closely the "apology" will follow the hollow words of Abe apologies.

A good apology needs to accepted by the victims. It needs to include mechanisms for the perpetrators to learn. And it needs focus on the experience of the victims. Most important it is a process that does not end with words or an explanation that the company is a new one.

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The Mitsubishi Materials Company delegation will then travel to Wellsburg, West Virginia on the morning of Tuesday, July 21st. At the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum, Education & Research Center the delegation will present an apology and an unspecified donation for educational projects on the POW of Japan experience. Ed Jackfert, twice former ADBC National Commander and US Army Air Corps in the Philippines, who was a slave laborer for Mitsui, Showa Denko, Nisshin Flour Milling will attend the ceremony.

Six POW camps on Japan’s homeland were associated with the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu during the war and held 2,041 POWs (including 1,148 Americans, the others were British, Australian, Dutch, Canadian, New Zealand, and South African). One of these camps was associated with four Mitsubishi industrial sites in Nagasaki recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Four of the camps were part of Mitsubishi Mining that is today’s Mitsubishi Materials Company. The Company still owns these mines. (Market Cap $4.8 billion)

Three of mines are now operated as museums and amusement parks by a subsidiary of MMC. None of the descriptive materials at these sites mention the history of forced and slave labor.

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At liberation in late August 1945, 1568 POWs (including 876 American POWs) were found in four POWs camps operated by Mitsubishi Mining Co. There were records of 30 POWs deaths (including 27 Americans).

Newspapers report that the apology will be a formal “shazai,” which even the government of Japan has never used. But we do not know what the actual document will say.

The Chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation Yorihiko Kojima and a Mitsubishi Materials board member, Foreign Policy Expert Yukio Okamoto are both on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Commission on a Framework for the 21st Century” generally referred to as his "history committee". It appears that these men were thoughtful and brave, considering the political restrictions they currently work under, to put forward Mitsubishi Materials to offer this apology to the American POWs.

Mr. Okamoto will be at the apology ceremony in LA. He will be joined by former POWs Mr. James Murphy, a survivor of Mitsubishi’s Osarizawa Copper Mine and Dr. Lester Tenney, a survivor of Mitsui’s Miike Mine. Both men fought on Bataan against Imperial Japan's invasion and survived the Bataan Death March and a Hell ship to Japan.

Also there will be Ms. Kinue Tokudome who has tirelessly devoted the last 15 years to seeking Japan's acknowledgement and apology for the POW tragedy. She negotiated with representatives of Mitsubishi Material's corporate social responsibility staff for this moment. Ms. Tokudome's friend, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is the host of the event.

Also attending is a daughter of a POW held at Mukden Ms. Jan Thompson who is president of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, the national organization representing the American POWs of Japan, their families, their descendants, and scholars. A professional filmmaker who has completed two documentaries on the POW experience with Imperial Japan, Tragedy of Bataan and Never the Same, she will be filming the event.

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So far, there is no mention of memorials, inclusion in the company histories, correction of websites, or descriptions at the Mitsubishi Materials-owned theme parks at the now-defunct mines or at the new UNESCO World Heritage sites in Japan that used POW slave labor.


Laura Hillenbrand, the author of the best-seller UNBROKEN, 1936 Olympian and POW Louie Zamperini’s biography, issued this statement regarding the historic actions taken by Mitsubishi Materials:

I wish to extend my thanks to Mitsubishi Materials for offering an apology to the prisoners of war who, during World War II, were forced to labor for their company. I hope this gesture brings some measure of healing to the POWs who suffered so terribly, and I hope Mitsubishi’s gesture will inspire other Japanese companies to reach out to those who were subjected to similar treatment. For the former POWs, I wish you only peace.

Below is a list of Mitsubishi Zaibatsu POW camps with nationality breakdowns of their Western slave laborers. POWs were sent to Japan starting in early 1942 to make up for war production labor shortages. The first American POWs were from Guam and Wake Island.

It should be further noted, that most of the "Hell ships" that transported the POWs to Japan were built and operated by the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu.

Mitsubishi-related POW Camps on Mainland Japan at a glance:

Sendai 3's Amusement Park

Sendai 3-B Hosokura
Lead/Zinc Mining
Mitsubishi Mining Co.
Today’s Mitsubishi Materials

TOTAL (at liberation): 284 POWs; 235 Americans; 47 British; 2 Dutch.

Camp Information

Amusement Park

Sendai Camp 6-B Hanawa (Osarizawa)

Copper Mining
Mitsubishi Mining Co.
Today’s Mitsubishi Materials

TOTAL (at liberation): 546 POWs; 495 Americans; 50 British; 1 Australian.

Camp Information

Mitsubishi History

Amusement Park

Tokyo 1-D Yokohama formerly Tokyo 2-B

Ship yard labor and ship construction
"The Yokohama-Mitsubishi Shipyards"
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Approximately 272 American POWs. *Most Americans were sent to Main Camp (Omori) and Mitsushima after camp closed on May 13, 1945. No official roster located.

Camp Information

Osaka 19-B became 4-B Ikuno
Silver/Copper Mining
Mitsubishi Mining Co.
Today’s Mitsubishi Materials

TOTAL (at liberation): 440 POWs; 44 Americans; 387 British; 8 Australians; 1 Dutch; 2 Canadians; 2 New Zealanders.

Camp Information

Mitsubishi History

Amusement Park

Osaka 21-B became 6-B Akenobe

Copper Mining
Mitsubishi Mining Co.
Today’s Mitsubishi Materials

TOTAL (at liberation): 298 POWs; 102 Americans; 168 British; 28 Australians.

Camp Information

Fukuoka 14-B Nagasaki

Iron foundry labor
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Today’s Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works Saiwaimachi Plant

TOTAL (at liberation): 201 POWs; No Americans; 157 Dutch; 24 Australians; 20 British.

Camp Information

Mitsubishi History

Camp Location 

UNESCO World Heritage

POW/MIA Recognition Day Events

Above, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey deliver remarks at the Pentagon's National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony September 20, 2013.

HERE you can listen to or read the reflections and advice of Edward Jackfert of West Virginia who was a POW of Japan where he was a slave laborer for Mitsui Corporation, Nippon Steel, Showa Denko, and Nisshin Flour. In 2010, Mr. Jackfert participated in the first American POW Friendship trip to Japan. He has worked tirelessly to create the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum in Wellsburg to preserve the history of the defense of the Philippines and to teach the lessons of war.
UPDATE: Read here a moving POW/MIA ceremony in Wellsburg, West Virginia at the Brooke County Public Library. The Library houses an extensive collection of books, documents, and artifacts on defense and fall of the Philippines and the fate of the POWs of Japan. Mr. Jackfert was the keynote speaker.

Bataan Death March Memorial Walk

Marine Color Guard preparing 

The Weirton Daily Times published the following article on April 10th about Wellsburg, West Virginia's annual Bataan Death March walk of remembrance. The Walk was held on the anniversary of the surrender of Bataan and the beginning of the March.

WELLSBURG - Area residents and visitors of various ages participated in a walk along Wellsburg's Yankee Trail and city streets Tuesday to remember the many Americans who died or suffered atrocities as participants in the Bataan Death March during World War II.

Leaders of the Brooke County Public Library and its American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum organized the event to promote awareness of the march, in which about 70,000 American and Filipino troops were forced to walk 65 miles through subtropical heat, without food or water.

After fighting for three months against Japanese invaders of the Philippine Islands, many were suffering already from fatigue, malaria or dysentery and succumbed to illness or exhaustion.

DEATH MARCH REMEMBERED — Marine Corps League Detachment 726, a group of retired Marines from the Pittsburgh area, led area residents and visitors in a walk Tuesday to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the Bataan Death March. The event was sponsored by the Brooke County Public Library and its American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum to promote awareness of the thousands of Americans and Filipinos who died or suffered atrocities during the march and as prisoners of war -- Warren Scott

"They didn't have any help. They were isolated. It was a very bad time," said Bill Burruss of Richmond, a member of the 59th Coast Artillery Echo Battery, a re-enactment group that brought two World War II-era Army Jeeps and an encampment to the library for the occasion.

Some were shot, stabbed with bayonets and beheaded with swords along the march.

Those who survived were transported to prisoner of war camps where they were forced to work for the Japanese war effort.

An estimated 600 to 650 Americans and 5,000 to 10,000 Filipinos died, said Jane Kraina, the museum's coordinator.

It's the second year the library and museum have held the walk. This year it drew many visitors from Pennsylvania, including the Marine Corps League Detachment 726, a group of retired Marines in the Pittsburgh area who perform military honors at several funerals each week.

Before forming a color guard to lead the walk, members visited the museum within the library.

"This is great," said Bob Daley, the group's commandant, as he surveyed the display created by Ed Jackfert, a local veteran who served in the Philippines [and was a POW of Japan]; and his wife, Henrietta.

"My brother was killed in Bataan as part of a work detail and I have a feeling for this," he added.

The display traces the experiences of the death march participants, from their capture, transport aboard crowded trains and "Hell ships" unknowingly targeted by fellow Allied forces and captivity in work camps, usually in support of the Japanese war effort.

Mary McCourts Blaine of Harrisburg, Pa. said her father, John, was among the POWs and once told her he felt fortunate to be involved in smelting copper because at least it kept him warm. He also recalled seeing a friend die while working on a ship for the Japanese, she said.

McCourts was among many who carried pictures of Death March participants, an addition to this year's walk aimed at making the event more personal.

Photos of Death March survivor Abie Abraham, a Butler, Pa. man who was recruited to help locate the remains of fallen American troops in the Philippines following the war, were displayed by Francis Dennison of Wellsburg and Abraham's widow, Christine.

A strong supporter and frequent visitor to the museum, Abraham died last year, and Brooke County's first Bataan Death March Walk was held in his honor.

Joe Vader of McKees Rocks, Pa., another strong supporter of the museum, also was on hand for this year's event. Vader encouraged many other veterans and their families to donate items for the museum as editor of The Quan, the newsletter of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, a nationwide group of veterans who served on the two Philippine islands.

He also donated the German box camera he acquired following his release from a POW camp and the photos he took of Japan before returning to the U.S.

Vader said of the walk, "I think it's great to give thanks to the men who lost their lives there."

He said he and other survivors "were lucky. We have a lot to be thankful for."

April 25 - Heroes of Bataan & Corregidor in Washington

Painting of the Bataan Death March by Ben Steele

COMMEMORATING THE HEROES 
OF BATAAN & CORREGIDOR

Including the American Defense Forces of the Philippine Archipelago, 

The Asiatic Fleet, Wake Island, China, Marianna Islands, 

Midway Island and the Dutch East Indies

Veterans of the Battle of Bataan, the Bataan Death March, and the capture of Corregidor will be in Washington, DC from April 24 to April 26 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Philippines. All became POWs of Imperial Japan. The history of these survivors of jungle warfare, torture, abuse, starvation, and slave labor and of their success in reconciling with the Japanese is a timeless inspiration.

Congress did not commemorate the 70th anniversaries of Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, the USS Houston, or Texas’ Lost Battalion. These were all among the first battles of American involvement in World War II. To make up for this oversight, a series of commemorative events is being planned with the veterans of the Philippines defense to provide a venue to remember these early months of World War II and their unique contribution to American history.

The 70th Anniversary of the Bataan Death March is April 9th and the surrender of Corregidor is May 6th. The valor of the Filipino and American soldiers is celebrated annually on April 9th in the Philippines as Valor Day or Araw ng Kagitingan.

The veterans coming to Washington include past national commanders of the now-disbanded American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) who traveled to Japan in 2010 and 2011 to receive an official apology from the Government of Japan for their maltreatment and to visit their former POW camps. The death rate and incidence of post-traumatic stress for American POWs of Japan was the greatest of any American conflict. One invitee, Dr. Lester Tenney, the last national commander of the ADBC was instrumental in persuading the Government of Japan to offer American former POWs an apology and to begin a program for them to visit Japan. He also founded Care Packages from Home for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Another invitee, Mr. Ralph Levenberg who was on the Death March, was until recently an advocate for veterans benefits as a member of the Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Ben Steele of Montana, another Death March survivor, has chronicled the Death March and Japan’s POW camps through his award-winning paintings and drawings. Mr. Ed Jackfert of West Virginia has championed and helped establish the ADBC Museum and Archive to preserve the memory of the American POWs of Japan and their lessons for war and peace.

Program

• Reception on Capitol Hill the evening of April 25 hosted by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and others
• Roundtable discussion hosted by members of the House of Representatives on the Bataan Death March and the success of the two POW visitation programs to Japan
• Wreath laying at the WWII memorial Bataan/Corregidor site
• Lunch program with contemporary veterans for all to share their experience with PTSD (not recognized until the mid-70s), other war-related disabilities, and reintegration into society
• Dinner with Commemoration donors and the American and Japanese officials who encouraged the Government of Japan to establish a program of reconciliation for American POWs

Veterans

The final list of veterans who will attend will be made closer to the event taking into consideration the health of each participant. Each veteran will be accompanied by a caregiver. The veterans have also requested that Ms. Kinue Tokudome, who has spent years working to help them communicate their story to Japan, be included.

• Dr. Lester Tenney, 92, San Diego, CA. Bataan Death March, Illinois National Guard, B Company, 192nd Tank Battalion from Maywood, Illinois
• Mr. Harold Bergbower, 92, Peoria, AZ. Bombing of Clark Air Field, Army Air Corps, , 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bomb Group,V Bomber Command
• Mr. Edward Jackfert, 90, Wellsburg, WVA. Bombing of Clark Air Field, Army Air Corps 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, V Bomber Command
• Mr. Joseph Alexander, 85, San Antonio, TX. Bombing of Clark Field, Army Air Corps 440th Ordnance Aviation Bombardment Squadron
• Mr. Ralph Levenberg, 92, Reno, NV. Bataan Death March, Army Air Corps, 17th Pursuit Squadron
• Mr. Earl Szwabo, 91, Florissant, MO. Corregidor, US Army, Battery C, 59th Coast Artillery
• Mr. Ben Steele, 94, Billings, MT, Bataan Death March, Army Air Corps, 7th Material Squadron, 19th Bomb Group (his painting is above)
• Special Guest: Ms. Kinue Tokudome, Kagoshima, Japan. Founder of the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who accompanied the POWs on their return to their POW camps.

Funding

Funding is needed for all the expenses of this program. Your help is requested to make these veterans of our greatest generation comfortable in their trip to Washington and to cover the program costs.

Donations can be made to one of two nonprofit, 501(c) (3) organizations: 

Asia Policy Point, 1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, Suite 414, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 822-6040. APP is organizing this program in Washington.

Brooke County Public Library Foundation, 945 Mail Street, Wellsburg, West Virginia 26070, (304) 737-1551. The Library houses the ADBC museum and archive.

For more information contact APP. Donate by clicking the DONATE button on the left side bar.