REMARKS BY LESTER I. TENNEY BEFORE THE
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARING ON
PRISONER OF WAR VICTIMS OF THE BATAAN DEATH MARC
June 28, 2000, at 10:00 a.m.
Mr. Chairman, Senators, I am honored to have been asked to be a part of this Hearing on "A Struggle for Justice," an issue regarding prisoners of war.
In early 1942, along with 12,000 other Americans who were fighting and defending our country on the Bataan Peninsula, I was promised supplies, food and reinforcements by our Government so that we could continue our defense of the Philippines. As history shows, that promise was never fulfilled. During one of President Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, made in February of 1942, we sat in our tanks and listened as our President informed the American people that, "in every war there are those who must be sacrificed for the benefit of the whole war effort." We suddenly realized he was talking about us! We were being sacrificed, abandoned for the benefit of the overall war effort. Well, Senators, we were able to live with that; after all, we were proud young men and women serving our country, and we took an oath to protect our country at all costs.
On April 9, 1942, the defenders of Bataan were surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army and we found ourselves prisoners of war. What exactly does it mean to be a prisoner of war? First of all, you are stripped of every human right you thought you had. You are constantly reminded of the fact that you are cowards, you are lower than dogs, and you have no rights whatsoever. You are humiliated beyond belief and your faith and morals are challenged on a daily basis. Sickness and diseases like dysentery, malaria, beriberi, scurvy and pellagra run rampant in your body. The smell of death is everywhere; it lingers in your nostrils for what seems like a lifetime. Many of the survivors have stated that they would have preferred death rather than captivity by the Japanese if they had known ahead of time what was going to happen. Like many others, for most of that time my family did not know whether I was alive or dead.
Here we are, 58 years later, survivors of these barbaric and sadistic events, and we are once again informed that we are again being sacrificed and abandoned by our own Government ñ but this time not for the War effort, but instead for the benefit of those large Japanese industrial giants who profited from our slave labor. I once again feel that I have been taken prisoner - but, this time by my own country. The Japanese beat me with guns and swords; my country is humiliating me and the memories of those who did not survive, with words.
How has this come to be? Last year the State of California decided to seek justice for those veterans who were captured by the Japanese and utilized as slave laborers by private Japanese companies. The California Legislature unanimously passed a statute that was enacted into law allowing claims for compensation for those veterans who were used as slave laborers to go forward in the courts irrespective of the running of the statute of limitations. Pursuant to this law, I, along with may other former POWs who were enslaved by Japanese companies during World War II, have since filed lawsuits seeking reparation, equality and justice.
Shockingly, the U.S. Department of Justice has recently filed a court submission, the effect of which would nullify the action of the California Legislature in seeking to open up state courts for American POWs who are pursuing fair compensation for back wages and injuries suffered at the hands of the many private profit-seeking industrial giants of Japan. Why is it that the Justice Department at the same time, has taken a "hands off" position with regard to the same treaty issue with regard to the survivors of the German Holocaust? Could it be that this is simply a matter of politics regardless of the impact this has on U.S. citizens?
This is incomprehensible to me, especially as our government, in recent years, awarded reparations to Japanese-American citizens who were placed into relocation centers during World War II. In addition, I am happy to say our Government worked diligently to help resolve the claims brought by victims of German atrocities during the Holocaust of world War II.
I am speaking as one of the survivors of the Bataan Death March who survived the atrocities of a barbaric group of victors. The beatings and torture we went through on a daily basis was not half as formidable as having to watch as the Japanese victors shot, bayoneted, buried alive, or decapitated our friends who, unfortunately, were unable to continue the March. We were then forced to witness these slayings.
Ultimately, I was taken to Japan on a "hell ship." Once there, I became a slave laborer in a coal mine owned by Mitsui. I was forced to shovel coal 12 hours a day 28 days a month, for over two years. And the reward I received for this hard labor was: beatings by the civilian workers in the mine. The reason for these beatings was because I did not work fast enough, did not shovel enough coal that day, or because the Americans won an important battle. We got to know how the war was progressing by the frequency and severity of the beatings, and the beatings were usually with a pickax, a hammer, or a chain ñ whatever the Mitsui overseers in the mine were able to get their hands on.
Now I, along with many of my former POW friends, are seeking justice from the Japanese companies that placed us into servitude. Not from the Japanese Government, or the Japanese people, but from those companies who profited from our slavery and humiliation. Our plight for recognition of this wrong has been ignored and, more recently, denied by our own government.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to survive, are coming to the end of our lives and we would like once and for all to see swift justice done on our behalf. We cannot recapture our youth or our health, but we would like to recapture our honor and dignity. At the very least, our country should not stand in the way by compounding our servitude. It is not money that motivates us - it is a need to remind the world of the importance of basic human rights and dignity.
I feel as if I am once again being sacrificed; abandoned not for the war effort as in the past, but for the benefit of Japanese big business. We are being abandoned by our Department of Justice and our judicial system. Worse than abandonment, our own government is encouraging the court system to ignore our sacrifices, our dignity, and our sense of justice. I urge you Senators, use your position within our government to correct this wrong and to have our Justice Department turn away from this misguided course of action.
The court papers recently filed by the Justice Department in the court proceeding (U.S.District Court., N. D. CA Case No. C000064) effectively takes away our right for recovery of a wrong perpetrated against us by a guilty and negligent Japanese Industrial giant who used us as their slaves, without compensation, without caring for our well-being and without controlling the actions of their employees.
The Justice Department erroneously or negligently issued a formal submission to the courts of our Nation, omitting the most crucial issue of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which the Justice Department was asked to review, Section 26, known as "The Most Favored Nation Clause" which states, "Should Japan make a peace settlement or war claims settlement with any State granting that State greater advantages than those provided by the present Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties to the present Treaty." Records of our State Department show that at least six other nations have been granted more favorable treaty terms than those given to the United States. Article 26, when properly interpreted, allows victims of forced or slave labor to seek recovery for the wrong perpetrated against former prisoners of war during World War II. Yet, the Justice Department studiously ignores it in its statement of interest and mentions not one word about Article 26 ñ even though it had been briefed on this issue.
Mr. Chairman, Senators, this is not a tirade against Japan as a Nation. I have no animosity towards the Japanese people. However I am entitled to compensation from the Japanese company that enslaved me. Thank you, Senators, for listening to my story about honor, injustice and responsibility. We served our country with honor, we have had our share of injustice, and now we seek responsibility from our government in allowing us to be heard in a court of justice.