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From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Senate Affirms American POWs Stance

Date: September 23, 2001

" Senate Affirms American POWs Stance
Quotes By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate affirmed Monday that American prisoners of war should have the right to sue Japanese companies that used them as slave labor during World War II.

The 58-34 Senate vote came two days after Secretary of State Colin Powell, at San Francisco ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the treaty that officially ended the war, said that under that treaty Japan was not required to compensate American prisoners.

Victims of Japanese forced labor have gone to court in California and other states seeking compensation from leading Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co., for the inhumane treatment they experienced during the war.

But the departments of State and Justice have opposed those lawsuits, filing legal briefs stating that under the 1951 peace treaty the allied powers expressly waived any rights to reparations from Japan.

"The treaty dealt with this matter 50 years ago," Powell told reporters at Saturday's anniversary event. "It's a position we have to defend."


But the Senate measure - introduced as an amendment to a $41 billion spending bill for the Commerce, Justice and State departments - would bar any funds to State and Justice to oppose a civil action by a World War II POW against a Japanese person or corporation.

"Should our government be stopping a private citizen from seeking his or her day in court for a grievance?" asked Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., co-sponsor of the amendment with Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "I don't think so. I think it's wrong and I'm frankly ashamed that it's happening."

"It's a matter of the companies accepting their responsibility for depriving us of food, of medical care and not paying us our wages during those horrible years," said 82-year-old former POW Lester Tenney of La Jolla, Calif., in a statement he issued after the San Francisco ceremony.

Backers of the amendment argued that the Japanese foreign minister, in a 1951 letter that was only recently made public, agreed that claims against private Japanese citizens and corporations would be permissible under the treaty.

But Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who was seriously wounded while fighting for the all-Japanese-American 442nd Regiment in Europe, sided with the administration's view that it would be a mistake to ignore treaty obligations. He said it would have "very serious consequences for United States-Japan relations and sadly would sow doubt about America's word among other allies."

Of the 36,000 American servicemen captured by Japan during the war, only about 5,300 are still living. Some, like Tenney, were subjected to the Bataan death march in the Philippines and forced to work for Japanese companies in mines and factories without pay, adequate food or medical care.

Last July the House approved a similar amendment to its version of the Commerce-Justice-State bill. The vote on that measure, sponsored by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Mike Honda, D-Calif., was 395-33.

The Senate also voted by voice to approve an amendment by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, to prohibit U.S. funding for a new international war crimes court to open in the Netherlands in the next few years.

Former President Clinton signed the 1998 treaty forming the International Criminal Court last December, but the Bush administration opposes it. The court would leave U.S. military personnel and government officials vulnerable to politically motivated prosecutions, the Bush administration contends. Craig said the court would be a "fundamental threat to American sovereignty and civil liberty." "