News-Info-Alerts

Re: Feds Want Japanese Slave Labor POW Suits Tossed Out

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 11, 2002

"Government argues against California law that allows slave labor lawsuits
By Chelsea J. Carter, Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) The federal government urged a California appeals court on Wednesday to throw out slave labor lawsuits brought by World War II POWs against Japanese companies, arguing that a state law allowing such suits is unconstitutional.

''This is a power California has assumed but is allocated to the federal government,'' federal attorney Douglas Hallward-Driemeier told a three-judge panel, which was expected to issue a ruling before November.

Hallward-Driemeier said the 1999 law interferes with the government's ability to conduct foreign affairs by allowing wartime forced-labor victims to seek redress against multinational firms operating in California.

But state Deputy Attorney General Angela Sierra argued that the law only extended the statute of limitations for past crimes and had ''nothing to do with the present Japanese government.''

''We believe California does have the constitutional authority to enact this statute,'' Sierra said.

The panel is addressing three lawsuits filed by a handful of former American soldiers who sued Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. saying they were forced to work for Japanese companies in mines and factories without pay, adequate food or medical care.

The departments of State and Justice contend the lawsuits violated a 1951 peace treaty that expressly waived any rights to reparations from Japan.

The former POWs, however, contend the treaty did not cover their alleged slave labor.

Although a federal judge dismissed similar lawsuits, a state court cleared the way for the POWs to sue. The government appealed the ruling.

Attorney Ronald W. Kleinman, who represented the POWs, argued that clauses in the treaty, which was signed by more than three dozen countries, allow for reparations.

But Hallward-Driemeier told the judges that POWs were instead allowed to collect damages from a reparations fund established after the treaty was signed.

Former POW Carlos Montoya, 87, said outside the courtroom that he was never notified about the fund.

''We came back in 1945 and here it is 2002, and I've never heard that. Not once,'' said Montoya, who survived fighting on Bataan and the notorious death march on the Philippine island and was later sent to work in mines and factories.

''This really isn't about money. It's about holding them accountable,'' said Joseph Della Malva, 84, who was taken prisoner in May 1942 when soldiers on the island of Corregidor surrendered. ''We paid a penalty greater than anybody understands.''

Of the 36,000 American servicemen captured by Japan during the war, only about 5,300 are alive.

© Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company"