Reminding Congress of its debt to the POWs of Japan

Rep Mark Takano

On March 8, 2022, the president of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, Ms. Jan Thompson, testified in person to the joint hearing of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committee to learn the legislative concerns of the country's Veteran Service Organization (VSO).

For years, the ADBC was only allowed to submit testimony for the record. This year, for the 80th Anniversary of Bataan Death March and the fall of the Philippines to the invading Japanese Empire, Ms. Thompson was invited to give testimony in person to remind the Committee members of the important American history she protects and how the sacrifice of the American POWs in the Pacific continues to inspire.

After Ms. Thompson's testimony, House Veterans Affair Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-CA) said: 

Thank you, Ms. Thompson, for your testimony.  I will ask my staff to brief me on the status of the legislation that you have brought up.  

Let me just say that I, too, believe this history is so important.  The sacrifice of our World War II veterans in the Pacific and, specifically, those that served, those that endured the hellships and those that endured the Bataan Death March.  We must remember their sacrifice.  We must face up to history, no matter how terrible it is.  We must encourage our ally Japan, to do that.  We must live up to those ideals for ourselves, as well, to face our own history. So, thank you so much for your testimony and thank you so much for the work that you do.  

HERE IS WHAT PRESIDENT JAN THOMPSON SAID THAT ELICITED THAT RESPONSE:

HER FULL WRITTEN TESTIMONY CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Ms. Thompson.  Chairmen Tester and Takano, Ranking Members Moran and Bost, and members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committee, thank you for inviting me to speak about the American POWs of the Empire of Japan during World War II.  We honor these American men and women as the heroes who deserve recognition by Congress and America, as a whole.  They have largely been forgotten and we must remedy this.  

I represent the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society and I am the daughter of one of those POWs.  The ADBC-MS Society represents the men and women who defended American territories and allies in the Pacific, such as Guam, Wake, Midway, Java, the Philippines, and the Marianas.  

Within the first six months of the war, by June 1942, the majority became prisoners of war.  Our mission is to preserve the history of the American POW experience in the Pacific and to teach future generations of the POW's sacrifice, courage, determination, and faith, as this is the essence of the American Spirit.  

Like today's Ukrainians, the Americans in the Pacific were fighting a formidable invader.  The Empire of Japan also had far superior equipment and armed forces.  Although Guam fell within days of Pearl Harbor, the Marines and civilians on Wake Island held out for a legendary two weeks and the American and Filipino defenders in the Philippines repelled the Japanese Army for nearly 5 months.  They fought with outdated weapons, lacking medicine, ammunition, and supplies.  Help did not come from the United States.  

The men on the Bataan Peninsula were surrendered 80 years ago next month.  Those surrendered on Bataan endured what is now known as the Bataan Death March and, as Senator Tester said in his opening remarks, this April 9th, marks the eightieth anniversary of the Bataan Death March.  

Less than one month later, on May 6th, the fortress island of Corregidor was surrendered and the rest of the American and Filipino units scattered throughout the 7,000 islands of the Philippines soon followed.  

Some of you know about the Bataan Death March, but few of you know about the beheadings of Wake Island Marines or the machine gunning of American sailors who survived the sinking of the USS Houston or the deadly imprisonment in Japan of the indigenous people of Attu from Alaska.  

To survive the surrender was just one hurdle, because each day of the POW's captivity, three and a half years, was a constant struggle for survival.  All the POWs, American and Allied, were starved, denied medical care, refused clothing, routinely beaten, and murdered.  Some POWs became human experiments.  Some aviators were executed, followed by a ritualistic eating of their livers.  And others, without reason, such as on Wake and Palawan, were simply massacred.  

As the war progressed, the majority of the POWs were shipped throughout the Empire on what were called "hellships" to be slave laborers for private Japanese companies.  All of these hellships were unmarked.  Many were sunk by American bombers or submarines.  

Thousands of American POWs died by friendly fire.  For those who survived captivity, returning home presented another battle.  Some POWs were forced to sign gag orders about the horrors they experienced.  Many of them could not articulate what had happened to them or what they had witnessed and it took a very long time for the Veterans Administration to recognize they all had returned home with a disability.  

The sacrifice and resilience of the American POWs of Japan, especially in light of today's events, should not be forgotten.  Their courage continues to inspire. 

To this end, in this year of the eightieth anniversaries, I request that Congress immediately approve an accurate and inclusive Congressional Gold Medal for America's early defenders of the Pacific who fell to Japan.  They are the most diverse World War II cohort to be considered for the Congressional Gold Medal.  

The U.S.-Japan alliance is very strong today and we ask Congress to encourage the Japanese in the following:  to institutionalize the reconciliation program that was started in 2010 with the ADBC Memorial Society.  The current POW Japan Friendship Program should be expanded.  Japan's UNESCO industrial heritage sites need to acknowledge POW slave labor and a world-class memorial should be installed at the Port of Moji, where most POWs entered Japan on the hellships.  

The epic battles of Bataan and Corregidor were a symbol of hope and a beacon of our future success.  They should not be forgotten.  It is time to honor these men and women.  

POWs of Japan Appeal to Congress

Chairman Tester (D-MT)

On March 18th, the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society submitted its annual testimony for the record to the joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans' Committees to hear from Veteran Service Organizations.

You can find all the hearing documents HERE. You can watch the hearing HERE.

Jan Thompson, president of the ADBC-MS told the Committee members:

The final and fourth battle for the American POWs of Japan is for them not to be forgotten. Current and future generations can be inspired by their “victory from within.” There are still lessons to be learned. Most important, Congressional advocacy for the POW’s legacy reassures today’s fighting men and women that their service and sacrifice will be remembered.

To ensure that the POWs’ unique history is appreciated and retained, I ask Congress to:

1. Award, collectively, the American POWs of Japan the Congressional Gold Medal.

2. Instruct the U.S. Department of State to prepare a report for Congress on the history and funding of the “Japan/POW Friendship Program” that began in 2010 and how it compares with programs for (i) other Allied POWs and (ii) the Kakehashi people exchange program in the United States.

3. Encourage the Government of Japan to continue the “Japan/POW Friendship Program.”

4. Encourage the Government of Japan to expand its “Japan/POW Friendship Program” into a permanent educational initiative.

5. Request the Government of Japan to honor its 2015 promise to include the “full history” of Japan’s UNESCO World Industrial Heritage properties of the Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining. The history of POW slave labor at many of these sites is not included at either the locations or the new Tokyo Information Center.

6. Encourage the Government of Japan to create a memorial for the Allied POWs of WWII at the Port of Moji on Kyushu where most of the POW hellships docked and unloaded their sick and dying human cargo.

See HERE for the complete text of the testimony.

POWs voice their concerns to Congress

Time for the Gold Medal

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD

to the

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and HouseVeterans' Affairs Committee Joint Hearing

 To Receive Legislative Presentations of Veterans Service Organizations

 

By

 

Jan Thompson

 

President

American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society

12 March 2019

AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR OF JAPAN

CEMENTING A LEGACY

[excerpts]

Today, I want to speak to you about what it means to “Never Forget” our veterans.  The men and women who became POWs of Japan over 70 years ago fought the early desperate battles of WWII in the Pacific and suffered some of its worst consequences. Nearly 40 percent did not return home. Those who survived had the highest rate of post-conflict hospitalizations, deaths, and psychiatric disorders of any generation of veterans. Their families endured and inherited their trauma.

If this history is forgotten, so too will the sacrifices of today’s veterans. It is an obligation to honor our veterans and to remember appropriately their contribution to our country’s history.

Before the last American POW of Japan dies, we believe that the appropriate civic remembrance for them is a Congressional Gold Medal that recognizes their unique history of perseverance, valor, and patriotism.

Most important, we ask Congress to approve an accurate and inclusive Congressional gold medal for the American POWs of Japan. It is a long overdue symbol of our commitment to veterans of past generations that we will “never forget.”

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What we ask Congress

We ask Congress to encourage the Government of Japan to hold to its promises and responsibilities by preserving, expanding, and enhancing its reconciliation program toward its former American prisoners. We want to see the trips to Japan continued.  We want Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publicize the program, its participants, and its achievements.  We want to see a commitment to remembrance. We believe that both countries will be stronger the more we examine our shared history.

We ask Congress to encourage Japan to turn its POW visitation program into a permanent Fund supported by Japanese government and industry. This “Future Fund,” not subject to Ministry of Finance yearly review, would support research, documentation, reconciliation programs, and people-to-people exchanges regarding Japan’s history of forced and slave labor during WWII. Part of the Fund’s educational programming would be the creation of visual remembrances of this history through museums, memorials, exhibitions, film, and installations. Most important, the Fund would support projects among all the arts from poetry, literature, music, dance, and drama to painting, drawing, film, and sculpture to tell the story to the next generation.  

We ask Congress to ask and to instruct the U.S. State Department to continue to represent rigorously the interests of American veterans with Japan. It is only the U.S. government that can persuade Japan to continue the visitation program, to create a Future Fund, and to ensure that the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution include the dark history of POW slave labor.

We ask Congress to press the Japanese government to create a memorial at the Port of Moji, where most of the “Hell ships” docked and unloaded their sick and dying human cargo. The dock already features memorials to the Japanese soldiers and horses that departed for war from this port. Nowhere in Moji’s historic district is there mention of the captive men and looted riches off-loaded onto its docks. This must change.

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Over the past few years, there have been Congressional gold medals given to groups that included American POWs of Japan. Eight members of the Doolittle Raiders were POWs, at least one Nisei member of the Military Intelligence Service was a POW, and nearly all the officers of the Filipino troops who were awarded Congressional Gold Medals were American.

Unlike previous WWII Congressional Gold Medal award groups that honor specific service units or ethnicities, the American POWs of Japan are both men and women from many ethnic groups, religions, services, and regions. For example:

• The 200^th Coast Artillery (AA) on Bataan, the first to fire on the invading Japanese forces, was composed mainly of Hispanic Americans from New Mexico.
• The first tanker to die in WWII was Private Robert Brooks, a black man with the 192^nd Tank Battalion from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, who was killed on Nichols Field, Philippines.
• Chinese-American, Eddie Fung, and Japanese-American, Frank Fujita, both fought on Java and were surrendered with the U.S. Army 2^nd Battalion, 131^st Field Artillery, 36^th Division (Texas National Guard).
• A statue before the St. Landry Catholic Church in Opelousas, Louisiana memorializes Army Air Corps Chaplain Father LaFleur who sacrificed his life while saving fellow POWs in the sinking of the hellship Shinyo Maru.
• The military nurses captured in the Philippines were the first large group of American women in combat and, counted with the Army and Navy nurses surrendered on Guam, comprised the first group of American military women taken captive and imprisoned by an enemy.
• Over 600 United States Merchant Marines, including one woman Mariner, became prisoners of Imperial Japan. Fifteen percent were killed by Japanese Imperial Navy officers during capture or died in Japanese POW camps.
• The first American POWs of Japan were Marines stationed in China and the last were Navy and Army aviators shot down over Japan.
• An Army Corps of Engineers Master Sergeant, Aaron Kliatchko, who died aboard a hellship is remembered as the “Rabbi of Cabanatuan” POW camp in the Philippines where he consoled Jew and gentile alike.

Seventy-eight years after the start of the War in the Pacific, it is time to recognize all those who fought the impossible and endured the unimaginable in the war against tyranny in the Pacific. Moreover, as I have described above, the Gold Medal would also recognize that we are the only American wartime group to have negotiated our own reconciliation with the enemy. 

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Appeal to Congress by American POWs of Japan

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The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS), the leading American veterans’ organization for former prisoners of war of Imperial Japan, their families, and historians, submitted testimony for the record on March 22, 2017 to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Joint Hearing To Receive Legislative Presentations of Veterans Service Organizations. [click to see full testimony]

The ADBC-MS asked Congress to:

• Adopt a resolution commemorating this year’s annual National Prisoner of War Remembrance Day, April 9th, which is also the 75th anniversary of the Bataan Death March on the Philippines.
• Award a Congressional gold medal to the American POWs of Japan, who endured the longest and harshest imprisonment of any WWII POWs.
• Insist that the Japanese corporations that used POW slave labor during WWII make amends for their war crimes before they are allowed to bid on U.S. high speed rail contracts.
• Encourage the Government of Japan to turn its POW visitation program into a permanent Future Fund for research, documentation, reconciliation, and people-to-people exchanges.
• Demand that the Government of Japan refute misrepresentations of POW history in Japan and include the history in its UNESCO Industrial Heritage sites.
• Ask the Japanese government to create a memorial at the Port of Moji, where most of the “hell ships” delivered their sick, dying, and dead human cargo to Japan.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Bataan Death March, the fall of the Philippines, the end of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, and the destruction of the U.S. Far East Air Force. It is estimated that over 300,000 American and Allied POWs and civilian internees were POWs of Imperial Japan. Nearly half died in squalid POW camps, aboard fetid “hell ships,” or as slave laborers for Japanese corporations.

Never again, means never forget.

Testifying to Congress

Jan Thompson, POWs and movie stars

On March 12th, Jan Thompson, President, American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society submited for the record a statement of goals and concerns of the Memorial Society to the U.S. Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Joint Hearing To Receive Legislative Presentations of Veterans Service Organizations. She praised Japan for starting the process of reconciliation and reminds its leaders that much remains to be done. Her testimony is as follows.

American Prisoners of War of Japan

Preserving the Memory of World War II Veterans of the Pacific

Chairmen Sanders and Miller, Ranking Members Burr and Michaud, Members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, thank you for allowing us to present the unique concerns of veterans of World War II’s Pacific Theater to Congress. The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS) represents surviving POWs of Japan, their families, and descendants. Our goal is to preserve the history and communicate the enduring spirit of the American POW experience in the Pacific to future generations.

We applaud the efforts of the veterans’ service organizations to fight for adequate medical care and disability benefits. Moreover, the incidence and intensity of post-traumatic stress for American POWs of Japan were probably the greatest of any American war. POWs who survived the POW camps, the “hell ships” to Japan or its colonies, endured years of brutal imprisonment and slave labor. Upon returning from the Pacific War, they found a government reluctant to recognize and treat the mental and physical effects that were consequences of the deprivations suffered while POWs of Japan.

At the time, PTSD was not yet a medical category and VA doctors limited the POWs’ access to disability benefits by dismissing the after-effects of years of abuse, disease, and malnutrition. That should not happen to any veteran, and thus, we strongly support the legislative goals of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) to ensure medical, and mental health care, as well as to expedite disability claims, to provide rehabilitation, and to establish job-training programs for all American veterans. The American POWs of Japan and their families know intimately the difficulty of re-incorporation into civil society with little support.

Our task today, however, is to ensure that the history and lessons of the American POWs experience are preserved. This is an urgent task. In the United States this history is being forgotten, and in Japan it is being revised.

Remembrance, Reconciliation, and Preservation
The ADBC-MS was dismayed in 2012 when none of the 70th anniversaries of historic battles during the beginning of World War II were officially recognized. Astonishingly, December 7, 1941, “a date that will live in infamy,” has not been recognized with a Congressional resolution for many years. We hope that future Congresses will remember the events that started American involvement in World War II with resolutions memorializing the simultaneous attacks on Pearl Harbor and The Philippines Islands.

We appreciate efforts in prior Congresses to award Congressional Gold Medals to the troops who defended the Bataan Peninsula on the Philippines in 1941 and 1942 and became POWs. One limitation of past bills was that they omitted the many that were captured at this time on Corregidor, Mindanao, Wake Island, Guam, Java, in China, at the Sunda Strait, or aboard Merchant Marine ships. Later in the war, airmen shot down over the Pacific as well as those captured from destroyed Navy vessels became POWs. We hope that this or the next Congress will move forward with a Congressional Gold Medal bill that more fully recognizes American POW experiences with Imperial Japan during the Pacific War.

The former POWs of Japan leave many legacies and lessons. Among the most important is how they coped with the postwar traumas of inhumane imprisonment. They fought two battles. One was for recognition of their “battle fatigue” and the other for justice and remembrance. The former is now championed by all veterans’ service organizations. We ask Congress for support and to help our veterans in their unique quest for justice and remembrance.

In an interview published 23 January 2014 in The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s second largest newspaper, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy said:

I want to take a moment to talk about history and reconciliation. This fall, there was an event that previously might have been thought unimaginable. A group of Americans who suffered as Japanese prisoners of war during the Second World War returned here at the invitation of the Japanese government. Participating took enormous amounts of courage for all those involved. 

There are many other examples of ways in which people here worked to build a peaceful future out of a difficult past. It is not easy, but citizens in all countries should encourage and support leaders who reach across history to build a peaceful future. It took courage on the part of the participants to come back to Japan and learn how Japan has changed.

As background to the Ambassador’s words, in 2009 the Government of Japan, through its Ambassador to the U.S. Ichiro FUJISAKI, and again in 2010 through its Foreign Minister Katsuya OKADA, officially apologized to the American POWs of Japan. These Cabinet-approved apologies were unprecedented. Never before had the Japanese Government apologized for a specific war crime or done so directly to the victims. The Japanese Government further initiated a program for American former POWs to visit Japan and return to the places of their imprisonment and slave labor. Thus far, there have been four trips, one each in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Imagine our dismay when we learned that Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo ABE, may rescind or revise Japan’s war apologies and end the POW/Japan Friendship Program. As Ambassador Kennedy has pointed out, the Program is a great success. The benefits of this long-awaited act of contrition have been immeasurable for former POWs and their families as well as for the U.S.-Japan Alliance.

The success of this visitation program should encourage Japan to do more. The Program should not end with ability of the nonagenarian POWs to visit Japan or with their deaths. A POW’s captivity has multigenerational effects on families. The wives, children, and siblings of those who died suffered irreparable loss. In addition, the families of those who survived suffered from the long-term physical and mental health problems caused by the ex-POW's years of cruel captivity. Reluctantly recognizing this, Japan’s Foreign Ministry last year allowed two widows of POWs to join the trip. This should be continued and increased. Brothers, sisters, children, and other descendants have all been profoundly affected by the POW experience of their relatives and they should be eligible for future programs.

We ask Congress to encourage the Government of Japan to preserve, expand, and enhance its reconciliation program toward its American former prisoners. We want to see the trips to Japan continued and extended to include descendants and researchers. We want the visitation program drawn into a permanent program of research, documentation, reconciliation, and people-to-people exchanges that is not subject to the Japanese government’s yearly budget review. We want this program to create national memorials to the POWs who slaved and died on Japanese soil and territories as well as aboard the “hell ships.” We want Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publicize the program and its achievements.

We also want the many companies that brutally used POWs as slave labor and who now profit in the American market, to join with their government by acknowledging their use of forced labor and by offering their own acts of reconciliation. Over 60 Japanese companies, such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Hitachi, Toshiba, Kawasaki, Nippon Steel, Nippon Express, Nippon Sharyo, Ube Industries, Showa Denko, and Yawata Steel maintained war production by cruel exploitation of American and Allied POWs.

Prime Minister Abe is in a unique position to extend and enhance the visitation program and reconciliation efforts. By doing so, he can engender trust among the Americans who protect Japan by honoring their country’s veterans. And he will signal to Japan’s other wartime victims that meaningful reconciliation, as Ambassador Kennedy pointed out, is possible. The POW/Japan Friendship Program is one that confronts the past while preserving the dignities of both Americans and Japanese.

We are grateful for the State Department’s efforts to encourage the Japanese government to do the right thing by initiating this process of reconciliation. We recall that in 1995 the Japanese government established the Peace, Friendship, and Exchange Initiative that included a multi-million dollar program of reconciliation and exchange with all former Allied POWs except American POWs. We want Congress to encourage the State Department to continue to make up for lost opportunities and time.

It is our hope in addressing this hearing that we can encourage Congress to work with the Obama Administration to persuade Japan to hold to its promises and responsibilities. Japan needs to be encouraged to do more. We trust that Congress will encourage Americans to honor and remember the brave and honorable soldiers who sacrificed so much during the first months of the World War II. Congressional resolutions and the Congressional Gold Medal are important parts of this responsibility and remembrance.

The American POWs of Japan and their families have paid a high price for the freedoms we cherish. What they ask in return for their sacrifices and service is for their government, even after some 70 years, to keep its obligations to them. They do not want their history ignored or exploited. They do not ask for further compensation. What they want most is to have their government stand by them to ensure they will be remembered and their American history preserved.

Thank you for this opportunity to address your committees.

This week in Washington for American vets

The Week of March 10th features a number of programs and hearings of interest to the POW community. The first meeting discusses the successes and limitations of people-to-people exchanges in the reconciliation process. This is of particular interest to those who have or plan to participate in the POW/Japan Friendshp Program for American former POWs of Japan.

There are also three programs on the funding of veterans' programs and the forthcoming year's legislative agenda of veterans' organizations.

You can watch all these programs and hearings via the Internet.

Evaluating People-To-People Reconciliation Programs: Findings, Conclusions and Feedback. 3/11, 9:00 am-3:00pm. Sponsor: The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Speakers: Susan Allen, director of George Mason University's Center for Peacemaking Practice; Melissa Brown, director of the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); David Hunsicker, Asia and Middle East team leader in the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation at USAID; Kelly Skeith, deputy director for performance evaluation at Social Impact; Mathias Kjaer, evaluation specialist at Social Impact; Liz McClintock, founder and managing partner at CMPartners; and Melanie Greenberg, president and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The event will be webcast at
www.sfcg.org/events/cprf-march-2014

Veterans' disability, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and postwar adjustment: Are we doing what's best for vets? 3/13, 10:00am-Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsor: The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) -Speakers: Daniel Gade, assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy; Kyle Greenberg, research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Richard McNally, director of clinical training at Harvard University, participate in a discussion on "Perverse Incentives and Their Effects"; David Eisler, master's candidate at Columbia University; Sally Satel, resident scholar at AEI; and Stephen Xenakis of MindCare Solutions, participate in a discussion on "Correcting a Flawed System".
The event will be streamed live at www.american.com/watch/aei-livestream

Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee - Hearing
3/12 - 10:00 am. Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and House Veterans' Affairs Committee joint hearing on the legislative presentations of Paralyzed Vets of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Gold Star Wives of America, the Wounded Warrior Project, the Fleet Reserve Association, the Air Force Sergeants Association, the Non Commissioned Officers Association, and the American Ex-Prisoners of War. This hearing will be live streamed.

House Veterans' Affairs Committee - Hearing
3/13 - 10:00 am. Full committee hearing on "U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request for FY2015." Witness(es) TBA

Submission to the Joint Veterans' Affairs Committees

On March 6, 2013, Mr. Joseph A. Vater, Jr., Esq. (PA), President, president of the ADBC Memorial Society submitted the testimony below for the record to the Joint House and Senate Committees on Veterans' Affairs to receive Legislative Presentation of Multiple Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs).

Prime Minster of Japan Shinzo Abe has said that he wants to review and possibly reissue past apologies that Japan has offered for its initiating the war in the Pacific and committing war crimes--war apology (Fusen Ketsugi). This is alarming to the American POWs of Japan as they were offered one of the few official apologies given by the Japanese government. And this apology laid the foundation for Japan offering a program of acknowledgement and repair.

Officially, the Government of Japan has issued only four war-related apologies. The criteria for "official" is that the apology has to be approved by the Cabinet with a Cabinet Decision (kakugi kettei) or approved by the Diet. No war apology can be said to be approved by the Diet. Prime Minister Murayama's Statement in 1995, Prime Minister Koizumi's Statement in 2005, Prime Minister Kan's Statement in 2010 (only directed toward South Korea) and the 2009 apology to the American former POWs (buried in a February 6, 2009 reply, #171-22 [English, Question III, #3], to a Dietmember, which is legally a Cabinet Decision) are the only cabinet approved apologies. A recent paper published by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies NIDs appears to confirm this view.

The Kono Statement offered as an apology to the Comfort Women in 1993 was not approved by the Cabinet. On March 16, 2007, however, the first Abe Cabinet did approve a Cabinet Decision affirming that the Kono Statement was not Cabinet approved. This Cabinet Decision does note that all following Cabinets have, however, acknowledged the Kono Statement as an apology, just not officially.

Thus, in this ambiguous political environment, the apology to the American POWs is likely to be in jeopardy. Further, the program of repair and reconciliation--the US/Japan POW Friendship Program--is also threatened. Indeed, the unwillingness of the Japanese Foreign Ministry to expand the program to include widows, family members, and descendants is troubling. In light of the international trends toward extending peace and reconciliation programs to conflict victims, democratic Japan, an ally of the United States has an opportunity to turn the successful visitation program for the surviving POWs into a model.

With these issues in mind, Mr. Vater offered his testimony to the Veterans' Affairs Committees:

Chairmen Sanders and Miller, Ranking Members Burr and Michaud, Members of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, thank you for allowing us to present the concerns of veterans of World War II’s Pacific Theater to Congress. The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) Memorial Society represents surviving POWs of Japan, their families, and descendants.

In 2009, the Government of Japan belatedly recognized the extraordinary abuse suffered by the American POWs of Japan. An official apology was offered by the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and a course of reconciliation established called the POW/Japan Friendship Program.

Imagine our dismay when we learned that the new Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, may rescind Japan’s war apologies. We naturally worry that the reconciliation effort, the POW/Japan Friendship Program, is also in jeopardy. Although our membership was, understandably, divided on the value of the 2009 apology, a repudiation of the apology and cessation of the popular visitation program would send an unambiguous message of disrespect to the former POWs and harm the U.S.-Japan Alliance.

The U.S. State Department’s involvement was vital to the effort to obtain the apology and to establish the visitation program. It is our hope that Congress will work with the Obama Administration to persuade Japan to hold to its promises and responsibilities. Japan needs to be encouraged to do more.

As way of background, it was at the final convention of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC) in May 2009 that the Government of Japan through the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., Ichiro Fujisaki, and then again in 2010 through its Foreign Minister, Katsuya Okada, offered the American POWs of Japan an official apology:

We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of wars, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, in the Philippines, and other places.

The Japanese Government followed up the apology by initiating a provisional program for American former POWs to visit Japan and return to the places of their imprisonment and slave labor. Nearly all the original Japanese companies that used POW slave labor still exist and often continue to operate facilities at the same sites associated with their assigned POW camps. Thus far, there have been three trips: 2010, 2011, and 2012.

It concerns us that the Abe Administration wants to limit the program to former POWs and possibly end the program this year. Widows, children, and other descendants have also been profoundly affected by the POW experiences of their relatives and they should be included in future programs. We are concerned about how little Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has publicized the program’s accomplishments and goodwill. We are troubled that some Japanese companies have refused to allow our nonagenarian POWs to visit the sites of their imprisonment and slave labor.

The success of the POW/Japan Friendship Program should encourage Japan to do more. 

Still we wait for Japan’s great multi-national corporations to acknowledge their use and abuse of POW labor. Still we wait for Japan to create national memorials to the POWs who slaved and died on Japanese soil. Still we wait for memorials for American POWs who died on Japan’s Hellships and in occupied territories outside Japan such as Taiwan, Northeast China, Wake Island, and Guam. And still we wait for Japan to establish a fund to continue this visitation program and to include research, documentation, people-to-people exchanges, and promotion of human rights.

We want to see the trips to Japan continued and to include widows, descendants, and researchers. We want the visitation program to be turned into a permanent program not subject to the Japanese government’s yearly budget review. 

Prime Minister Abe is in a unique position to extend and enhance this visitation program. Two of his Cabinet members have family ties to companies that used POW slave labor during the war.

By showing his government’s acknowledgement of the pain inflicted on soldiers of what is now Japan’s closest ally, the United States, Prime Minister Abe can strengthen bilateral relations at a fundamental level. It would engender trust among the Americans tasked with protecting Japan by honoring their veterans, and would signal to Japan’s other wartime victims that meaningful reconciliation is possible.

As you can see from this sampling of impressions by former POWs of their trip to Japan, it has brought closure and peace of mind to those who participated:

This program has really helped my Dad [Harold Bergbower, Past National Commander, ADBC]. For years, Dad would have nightmares after any talk, show, or sometimes just because of his years as a POW. Since our visit his nightmares have gone. I cannot really put in words what that day at the Japanese Factory in Takaoka, Toyama, Japan did. He has not forgotten or totally forgiven but there is now a peace to his remembrance. If you are able please consider participating in this program. My Dad's memory is failing on his daily activities but he continues to recall his trip to Japan. Now when he talks about his POW experience he can now add closure. The audience is amazed at his story. I was honored to go with Dad to Japan. If you are a descendant please talk with your parent about the program. It truly is a life changer.

Mr. James Collier later reflected on the trip to Takaoka, whose natural beauty he had never recognized while being a POW: “After meeting the kind people at JMC and after observing the beautiful surroundings of the city, I realized that I had been robbed of the opportunity of truly knowing this place for the past 66 years. Takaoka had always remained as a dark and depressing place in my mind. Yet this visit has finally afforded me the opportunity to appreciate its beauty.”

Mr. Roy Friese met up with Mr. Kensuke Morooka, Representative of the Association for Recording Air Raids of Omuta. His family home was completely destroyed in the fire-bombing of June 18, 1945. “I remember I saw POWs when I was a boy of thirteen. The skeletal POWs were crammed upright into trucks,” he told Mr. Friese as they shook hands. “The facts of sixty-six years ago should never be forgotten. But instead of animosity, we have to hold onto our belief that stupid wars should never happen again,” said Mr. Morooka. “I had felt various prejudices but they are all gone now,” said Mr. Friese as he left the POW camp site. More observations by former POWs who have participated in the POW/Japan Friendship Program are on the Outreach section of our website at www.dg-adbc.org. The program is a tangible benefit of the acknowledgement by Japan of some of Imperial Japan’s injustices.

We are grateful for the State Department’s recent efforts to encourage the Japanese government to do the right thing by initiating a process of reconciliation. The irony is that in 1995 the Japanese government established a program of reconciliation and exchange for all former Allied POWs with the exception of American POWs. We hope that Congress will now encourage the State Department to continue to make up for lost opportunities and time.

We ask for Congress and the Obama Administration to insist that Japan maintain its visitation program for former POWs and expand this remarkable program to include family members, to initiate a plan to preserve their history, and support for human rights education.

Thank you for this opportunity to address your committees.