Updated July 27, 2001
Gary K. Reynolds
Information Research Specialist
Information Research Division
CRS Report for Congress
Congressional Research Service - The Library of Congress
Summary
Of the approximately 130,000 American prisoners of war (POWs) in World War II (WWII), 27,000 or more were held by Japan. Of the approximately 19,000 American civilian internees held in WWII, close to 14,000 were captured and interned by Japan. After the conclusion of WWII, Congress passed the War Claims Act of 1948, which created a War Claims Commission (WCC) to adjudicate claims and pay out small lump-sum compensation payments from a War Claims Fund consisting of seized Japanese, German, and other Axis assets. Payments to POWs held by either Germany or Japan were at the rate of $1 to $2.50 per day of imprisonment. The WCC also paid civilian internees of Japan $60 for each month of internment, and civilians were also eligible for compensation for disability or death. The War Claims Act of 1948 did not authorize compensation for civilian internees held by Germany.
Since payments were already being made to U.S. POWs out of Japanese assets via the War Claims Act, POWs of other Allied countries were given first claim on payments from Japanese assets situated in neutral countries or countries with which the Allied powers were at war, as specified in the Multilateral Peace Treaty with Japan of 1951. In the decades since this initial compensation, POW and internee groups have tried several routes to obtain more compensation for their internment by Japan. Groups have tried and failed to get legislation passed, to have the U.S. Court of Claims hear their claims, to get Japan to pay reparations of about $20,000 to each legitimate claimant, or to have the United States compensate them.
In 1995 POW and civilian internee groups from several countries filed suits in the Japanese court system, seeking a net payment of $20,000 for each POW/internee. However, Japanese courts ruled out compensation, pointing to Article 14 of the Multilateral Peace Treaty, in which the United States waived any further claims by U.S. citizens against Japan. In late 1999, in a new tactic, POWs/internees who claim to have been used as forced laborers filed suit in California courts against several major Japanese companies seeking reparations; so far all suits have been dismissed. On June 28, 2000, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on POW survivors of the Bataan Death March and their claims against Japanese companies they allege used them as slave laborers. Although attempts to give POWs additional U.S. compensation failed in the 106th Congress, legislation was passed to find, declassify, and release any Japanese records that the United States might have relating to Japanese WWII war crimes. A sense of Congress resolution also passed that asked the Administration to facilitate discussions between POWs and Japanese companies over POW slave labor claims. As the number of living POWs and civilian internees dwindles, those that survive continue to press the issue. This report will be updated as legislation or events warrant.
Contents
World War II-U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees :: 1
Counting WWII Prisoners of War and Internees :: 2
War Claims Commission :: 3
Foreign Claims Settlement Commission :: 4
Prisoners of War :: 4
Internees :: 5
American Civilians in Europe and Asia vs. Those in the Philippines :: 5
Peace Treaties with Japan and Germany :: 6
War Claims Compensation :: 6
Treaty of Peace with Japan :: 9
Survival Rates in Japanese and German WWII Camps :: 10
The Bataan Death March :: 11
Hell Ships :: 12
POWs Made to Perform Forced Labor :: 12
Unit 731 :: 13
Missing Records :: 18
Efforts to Obtain An Apology :: 19
Efforts to Obtain More CompensationÑCongressional :: 21
Action in the 106 th Congress :: 22
Legislation :: 22
Hearings :: 23
Action in the 107th Congress :: 24
Efforts to Obtain More Compensation - Legal :: 25
Attempts to Get Compensation - State :: 26
Dwindling Numbers of POWS and Internees :: 28
Bibliography :: 29
U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian American Citizens Captured and Interned by the
Japanese in World War II: The Issue of Compensation by Japan
World War II-U.S. Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees
OPEN FOOTNOTES
World War II (WWII) was fought during 1939-1945 in all corners of the globe by the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, Italy, and some smaller states) against the Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Free French, Nationalist China, the Soviet Union, and other allies). Major air, land, and sea battles took place on and around the European landmass, the Mediterranean, Asia, North Africa, the Far East, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and elsewhere. Estimates of people and resources involved in WWII vary widely. According to Louis L. SnyderÕs Historical Guide to World War II, military forces at their peaks are estimated to have ranged from a high estimate of 68.8 million combatants to a low estimate of 66.6 million combatants. According to this same source, estimated worldwide deaths, both military and civilian, were somewhere between 24.4 million and 30 million.1 The World War Two Almanac, 1931-1945, gives an estimate of 60 million combatants and worldwide deaths as being more than 53 million.2 Finally, the essay on WWII deaths in The Historical Encyclopedia of World War II estimates that somewhere between 45 and 50 million people were killed by the direct effects of WWII.3
For the United States, WWII formally started when Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, triggered President Franklin D. Roosevelt's December 8 request that "... Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire."4 This led to a declaration of war by Congress on the same day.5 A total of 16.1 million U.S. troops served in WWII, and these troops suffered 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths (due to disease, accident, etc.), and 671,846 wounds which were not mortal.6 In addition to these casualties, according to some estimates (discussed below), some 130,000 U.S. troops were captured and became Prisoners of War (POWs).7 Germany held almost 94,000 U.S. POWs, and Japan held over 27,000.8 Prior to the outbreak of WWII, many American civilians were working and living abroad in areas which were to become combat areas as WWII progressed. According to one report, approximately 4,700 U.S. citizens were captured and interned by Germany, and almost 14,000 U.S. citizens were captured and interned by Japan.9
Counting WWII Prisoners of War and Internees
The immense problems of World War II record-keeping in the heat of battle, how POWs and internees are defined, and sometimes unknowable individual circumstances, make an authoritative determination of the precise number of POWs and internees held by Germany and Japan in WWII virtually impossible. In the case of POWs, Charles A. Stenger, formerly with the Veterans Administration (VA), developed a set of figures revised annually since 1976 for POWs and an estimate for current numbers of surviving POWS for the Department of Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War. According to Dr. Stenger, these figures were compiled in cooperation with the Department of Defense (DOD), the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Archives. They are recognized and used by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other government agencies. Dr. Stenger lists 27,465 POWS in the Pacific, of whom 11,107 died while in detention. He estimates that 5,745 of the survivors were alive on January 1, 2000.10
According to Dr. Stenger, figures for civilian internees are less solid. He lists 7,300 American civilians as having been interned by Japan, of whom he estimates 2,301 were alive on January 1, 2000. He also cites an additional 13,000 Amerasians holding American citizenship who hid during this period, but who were never interned; he estimates that 1,786 of those 13,000 Amerasians were still alive as of January 1, 2000.11 The Office of the Army's Provost Marshal General, Prisoner of War Division, listed 13,979 American civilian internees (including War, Navy, and Merchant Marine personnel) in its compilation of internees "Formerly Detained by the Japanese Government."12 The Center for Internee Rights, Inc. (CFIR), an internee advocacy group, calculates that there were 13,996 civilian internees held by Japan, of which the Center calculated 1,497 to be alive as of January 1, 2000.13
War Claims Commission
In the United States, payments to WWII POWs and internees were made by the War Claims Commission (WCC), which was established by the War Claims Act of 1948 (50 U.S.C. App. 2001 et seq.). Under section 12 of the War Claims Act, German and Japanese assets seized by the United States after December 17, 1941, under the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, (40 Stat. 411) as amended, were to be liquidated and placed in a War Claims Fund created on the books of the U.S. Treasury. According to 1959 testimony by the head of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, the total amount of these liquidated assets amounted to $228,750,000.14 The 1952 amendments to the War Claims Act (P.L. 303, 66 Stat. 47, 49 [1952]), designated April 9, 1953, as the last day for the Commission to receive claims relative to WWII, and WCC programs were completed on March 31, 1955.
Foreign Claims Settlement Commission
The War Claims Commission was combined with the International Claims Commission to form the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. Subsequently, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission was made a part of the Department of Justice.15 The Commission took over the remaining duties of the WCC, and has administered WWII property claims programs under Title II of the War Claims Act and claims programs related to subsequent conflicts in which the United States has been involved (Korean Conflict, Vietnam War). It has also handled U.S. property claims against a number of other countries from wars in the 20th century, and is involved in the newly created Holocaust Claims Program recently agreed to by the United States and Germany.16
Prisoners of War
A prisoner of war is defined in the original War Claims Act as "... any regularly appointed, enrolled, enlisted or inducted member of the military or naval forces of the United States who was held as a prisoner of war for any period subsequent to December 7, 1941, by any government of any nation with which the United States has been at war subsequent to such date." Thus, POWs captured by any of the Axis powers-Germany, Italy, or Japan-were eligible to apply for compensation.
The preceding definition apparently accounts for the denial, cited in a footnote in the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission's 1998 Annual Report, of many thousands of claims for compensation by residents of U.S. territories and possessions occupied by enemy forces. This was because the claimants, many of them Filipinos, were not officially listed as members of duly recognized units of the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII.17
Internees
Under the War Claims Act, compensation of civilians was to go only to "civilian American citizens," i.e., "... any person who, being then a citizen of the United States, was captured by the Imperial Japanese government on or after December 7, 1941, at Midway, Guam, Wake Island, the Philippine Islands or any Territory or possession of the United States attacked or invaded by such government, or ... while in transit to or from ... or who went into hiding at any such place." Thus civilian internees held by Japan were able to file for compensation but not civilian internees captured by the Germans. A later amendment 18 to the War Claims Act extended coverage to certain Guamanians who were captured and interned by Japan.
American Civilians in Europe and Asia vs. Those in the Philippines
In the 1948 hearings on the War Claims Act, a distinction was made between those American civilians living in Europe and Asia who State Department testimony indicated had been warned several times to leave Europe and Asia, and those American citizens in the Philippines and vicinity who were not warned. Only "civilian American citizens" who were in hiding, in transit in the area of the Philippines, or captured and interned by the Japanese were entitled to apply for compensation by this legislation.19
Peace Treaties with Japan and Germany
The United States concluded a treaty ending the state of war between the United States and Japan in 1951 that included POW compensation provisions. In addition, the War Claims Act (WCA) dealt with U.S. POWs held by all Axis powers, as well as civilian American internees of Japan. Since the United States did not conclude a peace treaty with Germany, only recently has compensation for some U.S. civilian internees of Germany been awarded.20
War Claims Compensation
Under the War Claims Act of 1948, POWs held " ... by any government of any nation with which the United States has been at war subsequent to [December 7, 1941]" were paid a lump sum payment based on $1 per day of imprisonment in which a POW was able to prove under Section 6(b) of the law that "... the enemy government or its agents failed to furnish him such quantity or quality of food (as he was entitled to as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention on Treatment of Prisoners of War of July 27, 1929)."21 The 1952 amendments added section 6(d) that provided for payment of an additional $1.50 per day if a POW were able to prove that he was subjected to "inhumane treatment" or forced to perform hard labor, thus bringing total aggregate payments to a maximum of $2.50 per day of imprisonment.22 Detention benefits could also be paid to members of a deceased POWÕs immediate family. Claims for disability or ongoing health problems due to being a POW of the Axis powers were subsequently handled by the Veterans Administration.23
Adult "civilian American citizens" who were interned by Japan or in hiding on Midway, Guam, Wake, the Philippine islands, or in territories or possessions of the United States were paid at the rate of $60 per month of detention (children under 18 were paid $25/month). Civilian disability payments of $25 per week (which was calculated as two-thirds of a weekly pay of $37.50) had a lifetime cap of $7,500. A similar cap of $7,500 applied to death benefits, which were calculated based on the individual situation for each applicant. According to statute, these amounts were arrived at by using pay computations based on the then current compensation tables for longshoremen.24 Funeral expenses of up to $3,000 were also available. As with POW payments, payments could be made to a deceased interneeÕs immediate family. Continuing medical payments were made thereafter by the Department of LaborÕs Office of Workers Compensation, with no cap for those who could show that their illnesses were caused by being an internee; 44 internees were receiving payments from the Office of Workers Compensation at the Department of Labor as of June 30, 1999.25 The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, in its latest annual report to Congress (1998), listed payments that had been made by the War Claims Commission and subsequently the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission for WWII POWs and internees or their immediate families as the following:
- POWs @$1 inadequate food rate [filing period 1/30/50-3/31/52]
286,315 claims, 179,725 awards = $49,935,89926
- POWs @ additional $1.50 forced labor rate [filing period 4/9/52-8/1/54]
254,228 claims, 178,900 awards = $73,492,926
- Civilian internees interned or in hiding @$60 rate [filing period 4/9/52-8/1/54]
23,000 claims, 9,260 awards = $13,679,32927
- American POWs enlisted in Allied forces [completed 8/31/56]
266 claims, 206 awards = $335,83628
- American merchant seamen captured and interned by Germany or Japan [completed 8/31/56]
385 claims, 171 awards = $333,59429
- Interned civilian contractor employees @$60 rate [filing period 8/31/54-8/31/55]
2,968 claims, 2,222 awards = $4,082,08630
- Guamanians captured by the Japanese on Wake Island in WWII detention benefits [program completed 12/31/63]
35 claims, 35 awards = $91,78231
According to the Chief Counsel for the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, there were approximately 39,000 claimants in the category of POWs held by Japan, or their survivors, and approximately 81,200 claimants in the category of POWs held by Germany or their survivors.32
Although the WCC believed that it had done a good job of publicizing its program and of contacting potential claimants, POW/internee groups, such as the National American Ex-POW Association, Inc. and the Center for Internee Rights, Inc. believed that insufficient efforts were made to find potential claimants.33 These groups also contended that because many of the effects of internment might not show up until many years after the fact, the cutoff dates for filing claims were too short.34
Treaty of Peace with Japan
The Multilateral Treaty of Peace with Japan (3 UST (United States Treaties and Other International Agreements) 3169, TIAS (Treaties and Other International Acts Series) 2490, September 8, 1951), that officially ended the state of war between Japan and the Allies, stated in Chapter V (dealing with issues relating to claims and property), Article 14(a) that:
It is recognized that Japan should pay reparations to the Allied Powers for the damage and suffering caused by it during the war. Nevertheless it is also recognized that the resources of Japan are not presently sufficient, if it is to maintain a viable economy, to make complete reparation for all such damage and suffering and at the same time meet its other obligations.
In addition, Article 14 (b) stated that:
Except as otherwise noted in the present Treaty, the Allied Powers waive all reparations claims of the Allied Powers, other claims of the Allied Powers and their nationals arising out of any actions taken by Japan and its nationals in the course of the prosecution of the war, and claims of the Allied Powers for direct military costs of occupation.
Chapter V, Article 16 of the Treaty, which addresses indemnification of Allied prisoners of war, stated that:
As an expression of its desire to indemnify those members of the armed forces of the Allied Powers who suffered undue hardships while prisoners of war of Japan, Japan will transfer its assets and those of its nationals in countries which were neutral during the war, or which were at war with any of the Allied Powers, or, at its option, the equivalent of such assets, to the International Committee of the Red Cross which shall liquidate such assets and distribute the resultant fund to appropriate national agencies, for the benefit of former prisoners of war and their families on such basis as it may determine to be equitable.
In Chapter V, Article 19 Japan waived all war claims of Japan and its nationals against the Allied powers.
Thus in lieu of reparations, certain categories of Japanese assets in neutral countries or in countries with which the Allied powers were at war, as designated by the Treaty, were liquidated and the money was transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which in turn was to distribute it to the appropriate national agency in each Allied government. Each Allied government was then to distribute it to its POW claimants on an equitable basis. However, since the United States had already paid out money to its POWs via the War Claims Commission, first claim on the $12.6 million in Japanese assets raised under the Treaty was given to POWs from other Allied countries.35
Survival Rates in Japanese and German WWII Camps
The stark differences in reported death rates for U.S. soldiers and civilians in German vs. Japanese camps dramatize the nature of the experience of Japan's camps for POWs and internees. Dr. Stenger's figures list 93,941 U.S. military personnel captured and interned by Germany, of whom 1,121 died (a little over a 1% death rate), and 27,465 U.S. military personnel captured and interned by Japan, of whom 11,107 died (more than a 40% death rate).36 The Center for Internee Rights (CFIR), an internee advocacy group, uses the same figures as Dr. Stenger for Nazi POWs and POW deaths. However, CFIR has different figures for POWs of Japan. Using its higher figures for both American POWs held by Japan (36,260) and their higher number of POW deaths (13,851) results in a slightly lower percentage of POW deaths, 38.2%. According to the Center for Internee Rights, of the 4,749 U.S. civilians held by the Germans, 168, or 3.5%, died; in contrast, of the 13,996 American civilian internees they believe were held by Japan, 1,536, or 11 %, died.37 A similar figure of 13,979 for the total number of American civilian internees held by Japan was compiled by the Army's Office of the Provost Marshal GeneralÕs Prisoner of War Division.38
The Bataan Death March
One of the most notable instances of Japanese brutality towards U.S. POWs occurred after the fall of Bataan in the Philippines. During what came to be known as "The Bataan Death March," the Japanese military force-marched almost 80,000 starving, sick, and injured U.S. and Filipino troops, who had surrendered on Bataan in the Philippines, over 60 miles to prison camps at Camp O'Donnell in April 1942. According to Louis L. Snyder's account, during these 6 days Japanese soldiers robbed, beat, tortured, and killed marchers at will. After the war Lt. General Masaharu Homma, who commanded Japanese troops at Bataan, was held responsible for Japanese actions and was arrested, tried, and executed by firing squad in April 1946. As with some other WWII statistics, the estimated death toll during this 6-day march varies. Stanley Falk estimates 5,000-10,000 Filipinos were killed plus a maximum of 650 Americans; Louis L. Snyder estimates that 10,000 prisoners, 2,300 of them American, died or were killed.39
Hell Ships
Thousands of American POWs were reportedly transported to work in the Philippines, Japan, China, Thailand, and Korea in 23 prison vessels known as "Hell Ships." Packed so tightly many could hardly do anything but stand in the inadequately ventilated holds of cargo ships, fed almost no food and given little water, U.S. POWs were reportedly also subject to attack when their prison ships, unmarked in violationof international law, were attacked by U.S. submarines.40 According to one news source, the greatest loss of life apparently occurred when the Arisan Maru, holding 1,800 U.S. POWs, was torpedoed by the U.S.S. Snook, killing all but 5 POWs.41 Another attack with major POW losses was the torpedo attack by the submarine U.S.S. Paddle on the Shinyo Maru, which reportedly resulted in the deaths of all but 82 of the 750 U.S. POWs packed into her hull. There were reports of survivors in the water being shot by Japanese guards. According to one news account, a total of five hell ships were sunk by U.S. ships and planes, resulting in the deaths of about 5,000 U.S. POWs.42
POWs Made to Perform Forced Labor
Because researchers lack access to Japanese government and private company records, no one knows how many people Japanese firms used as forced laborers. Some historians have speculated that there were approximately 700,000 Koreans, 40,000 Chinese, and hundreds of thousands of other Asians who were used as slave laborers. They guess that perhaps half of the 140,000 Allied POWs captured by the Japanese were forced to work.43 U.S. POWs took part in the building of the infamous "Bridge Over the River Kwai" [Khwae Noi river] in Thailand, and many performed hard and dangerous labor in mines, factories, and steel mills in Japan.44
Unit 731
Starting with the 1980 publication of "Japan's Germ Warfare: The U.S. Coverup of a War Crime," in The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, information on alleged Japanese Army biological warfare experiments on POWs has slowly been revealed, contributing to the continuing intensity of the WWII POW issue.45 According to Sheldon Harris, there were apparently at least two different chemical and biological warfare units centered in Manchuria, each commanded by a different officer. One organization was Unit 100, with a central headquarters at Changchun, 150 miles south of Harbin: it was commanded by Major, later Major General, Wakamatsu Yujiro. Although, Harris reported, it experimented on humans, it has gotten little attention so far.46 The experiments about which the most is known are the biological warfare (BW) as well as some chemical warfare (CW) experiments, reportedly directed by a military doctor named Shiro Ishii.47 From the mid-1930s through 1945, Dr. Ishii, who eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant General, reportedly directed BW experiment organizations under various names at a number of locations in and around the northern Manchurian city of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province. His main organization, Unit 731, was based in Manchuria, 15 miles south of Harbin at Ping Fan.48 The base at Ping Fan had a perimeter of almost four miles, an airfield, and a rail spur from Harbin, 150 buildings, and 3,000 employees.49 Ping Fan was declared a Special Military Region and was very securely fortified and guarded.50
Three books have been written about the activities of Unit 731, and it has been the subject of frequent mentions in U.S. newspaper articles in the late1990s. A onehour television documentary on Unit 731, entitled History Undercover: Unit 731, Nightmare in Manchuria, was broadcast on the History Channel on March 7, 1999, and was rebroadcast an additional three times.51 Books have been written about Unit 731 in Japan, former members have come forward to tell of their activities, and a traveling exhibit about it has been seen by some 200,000 Japanese.52
Ongoing private investigations by scholars have described Unit 731 as spreading disease and causing epidemics in field experiments that may have killed tens or even hundreds of thousands of Chinese.53 Although exact numbers are unknown, various researchers have alleged that Unit 731 performed laboratory experiments on somewhere between 850 to 10,000 or more subjects, and that none of them survived.54 According to author Sheldon Harris, victims consisted mostly of Han Chinese inhabitants of the area around Harbin but also included stateless White Russians, Harbin Jews, criminals, communist guerrillas or spies, Mongolians, Koreans, the mentally handicapped, and also Soviet soldiers captured in border skirmishes.55 Newspaper articles also state that Allied soldiers, possibly including some Americans, might have been experimented on.56
Experiments on humans reportedly not only included infection with anthrax, typhoid, and other infectious diseases but also live dissection of prisoners without anesthesia, exposing prisoners to low air pressure, freezing of prisoners, removal of limbs, blood, and organs (often without anesthesia) to see the results, exposing humans to fragmentation rounds containing infectious agents, and other experiments.57 However, in his 1994 book, Factories of Death, Sheldon Harris analyzed the fragmentary and sparse available data and concluded that "... the evidence, while inconclusive, suggests strongly that they [U.S. POWs] were not" [among those] "subjected to human BW experiments at Mukden."58
News accounts have indicated that possibly as many as 1,500 U.S. POWs, many of them survivors of the Bataan Death March, were among Allied POWs sent to a POW camp at Mukden (also known as Shenyang) in Manchuria, more than 300 miles southwest of Harbin.59 The first testimony by a U.S. POW about his experiences at Mukden apparently occurred in the brief testimony of Warren W. Whelchel in a 1982 field hearing on VA health care in Montana. At the hearing, Whelchel testified that different men were given different injections and, thereafter, the Japanese took careful note of each man's condition.60
At a half-day hearing of the Compensation Subcommittee of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, held in 1986 on treatment of U.S. POWs in Mukden, much of the discussion focused on compensation issues. There were four witnesses at the 1986 hearing, only one of whom was a former POW. The first witness, John H. Hatcher, Chief of Army Records Management and Army Archivist, testified that no primary records had been found by the Army dealing with what might have happened at Mukden and that Japanese Army records which could have contained such information had been returned unread to Japan. He stated that the Army had no records which could confirm or deny claims that had been made (p. 7-16). Former POW James Frank, the second witness, testified that he had been sent to Mukden and that he believed he had been experimented on. He described what he saw when he was assigned to help Unit 731 personnel with autopsies of those who died and he stated that Unit 731 functionaries were interested in only certain of the dead POWs. He also testified that after he had been liberated, he and others had been required by the Army to sign papers promising not to reveal what had gone on at the camp under penalty of court martial. He also spoke of the difficulty in getting the VA to accept claims for illnesses he believed were caused by his time at Mukden when the VA said no medical records of such time existed (p. 16-24).
The third witness at the 1986 hearing, Greg Rodriguez, Jr., was the son of a deceased POW and had previously testified at the 1982 hearing in Montana. He stated he believed his father's many ailments stemmed from being experimented on at Mukden, talked of his father's struggle to get veterans' benefits and about the records the son had found about Mukden (p. 24-32). The last witness, William Triplett, who had written a book focusing on involvement of Unit 731 personnel in the Tokyo Imperial Bank murders in 1948, said that in his research he had found declassified DOD documents which he believed attested to the existence of Unit 731, to the fact that it performed biological warfare experiments on human beings, and that Army occupation officials knew about these facts when dealing with former members of Unit 731. He quoted from a State Department memorandum that was part of a U.S. War Department Judge Advocate General document, which said, "It should be kept in mind that there is a remote possibility that the independent investigation conducted by the Soviets in the Mukden area may have already disclosed evidence that American prisoners of war were used to experimental purposes of a BW nature and that they lost their lives as a result of these experiments" (p. 34-35).61 Mr. Triplett stated that he believed that the government was in possession of records about what happened to POWs at Mukden that could help the VA in diagnosing POWsÕ ailments (p. 32-37).62 Since 1994, there have been newspaper accounts discussing the experiences of several American POWs who were interned at Mukden.63
One of the most persistent allegations surrounding Unit 731 is one made in the initial 1980 article, "Japan's Germ Warfare: The U.S. Cover-up of a War Crime" (in The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars), in Harris's Factories of Death, and elsewhere - that General Ishii and his staff were given immunity against prosecution as war criminals by the United States in exchange for the scientific information gathered during Unit 731's experiments. In a letter to Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, dated December 17, 1998, Eli M. Rosenbaum, Director of the Department of JusticeÕs Office of Special Investigations, indicated that such a deal was struck. Mr. Rosenbaum wrote that "Two of these [formerly classified] reports [about biological warfare data collected by the Japanese and the arrangement made between the United States and Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii, the commander of Unit 731], dated November 17, 1981, and May 5, 1982, confirm that Ishii and his colleagues received immunity from prosecution and that, in exchange, they provided a great deal of information to U.S. authorities."64
According to news accounts, Gen. Ishii returned to Japan after the war where he was permitted to continue medical research, was paid a Japanese government pension, and died of cancer in 1959.65 Moreover, many of Ishii's chief lieutenants occupied prominent positions in post-war Japanese society.66 According to one news account, the several hundred remaining members of Unit 731 were still holding their annual reunion in Japan as of 1999.67
Missing Records
In the 20-year controversy over whether Americans were experimented on, the chief problem has been the lack of documentary evidence to support anecdotal accounts. According to U.S. Army testimony in the 1986 hearing on treatment of U.S. POWs in Mukden, the United States captured the records of the Imperial Army when it occupied Japan. These very hard-to-translate records were brought to this country, remained here for some 13 years largely untranslated and unread, and were then returned to Japan.68 However, according to a 1999 New York Times article, in 1948 the Central Intelligence Agency screened the records before they were turned over to the National Archives. Later, 5% of the records were hurriedly microfilmed by a group including scholars from Harvard and Georgetown University, between the time they were ordered returned to Japan in 1957 and when they were actually put on a boat in February 1958. Japan has denied access to these records to those trying to document the actions of Unit 731.69 Author Sheldon Harris is quoted in the New York Times article as saying that he learned from Freedom of Information Act requests for military debriefing records dealing with this issue that relevant records were lost in the fire at the St. Louis Military Personnel Records Center in 1973.70 In 1995 an article in the Washington Times quoted Ken McKinnon, spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, as saying, "The Veterans Administration has never seen evidence that research was done on U.S. POWs. We would be more than willing to see new information on how POWs were treated and review the causes of injury and death." Mr. McKinnon said that the VA depends on DOD for analysis and documentation in this area. The article then went on to say that a Pentagon spokesman said he had never heard about U.S. POWs and the germ-warfare experiments at Mukden.71
Efforts to Obtain An Apology
Several times since the end of WWII, Japanese government officials made statements that they regarded as an apology for their conduct in WWII, but that other nations did not accept as a full, direct, and unambiguous apology.72 These statements have evolved. In 1989, Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita stated that, "We cannot say in affirmative terms whether the Japanese state was an aggressor nation. That is a matter for future historians to judge."73 But, in 1991, on the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologized to the United States by expressing his "deep remorse ... that we inflicted an unbearable blow on the people of America and the Asian countries."74 In 1992, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologized to the people of the Asia-Pacific Region, saying, "During a period in the past, the people of the Asia-Pacific region experienced unbearable suffering and pain due to our countyÕs behavior. I would like to express again deep remorse and regret." According to the article citing his apology, this apology to the people of the Asia-Pacific region was the first apology by a Japanese prime minister in a policy speech. A senior government official said that this apology to the people of the Asia-Pacific region was also meant to apply to the United States. However, a month before this apology, the Japanese parliament rejected a bill which called specifically for a Japanese apology on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.75 In August 1993, Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa stated that the Japanese "... state clearly before all the world our remorse at our past history and our renewed determination to do better."76
In 1994 the Japanese Foreign Ministry apologized for the "deeply regrettable" conduct of failing to break off diplomatic relations before their attack on Pearl Harbor. However, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that this apology was to the Japanese people and not to the people of the United States.77
On August 15, 1995, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama made the following statement, "During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensnare the Japanese people in a fateful crisis, and through its colonial rule and aggression caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations." He went on to say, "In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology." 78 However, some observers pointed out that he made his apology in the first person, on his behalf, and not that of Japan.79 This statement was not seen as adequate by various victims' groups because, they said, it was not endorsed by the Japanese parliament.80 According to newspaper accounts Prime Minister Murayama's apology obtained a tepid reaction in Asia.81 Speaking to veterans in Honolulu on the 50th anniversary of V-J Day, a few days after Murayama's remarks, President Clinton said, "...let me say especially how much the American people appreciate the recent powerful words of the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Murayama, when he expressed his nationÕs regret for its past aggression and its gratitude for the hand of reconciliation that this, the World War II generation, extended 50 years ago."82
Efforts to Obtain More Compensation - Congressional
In the years since the War Claims Commission's payments, POW/internee groups have tried various approaches to obtain more compensation either directly from Japan or from the United States. For instance, in the 98th Congress, H.R. 3188 was introduced, which proposed permitting Bataan Death March prisoners held afterwards as Japanese POWs to sue in the U.S. Court of Claims The Justice Department testified in opposition to the bill, citing numerous reasons why giving these POWs ability to sue the Japanese government or the U.S. government over this issue would violate established case law, international law, the Feres Doctrine (which disallows suits by members of the military for damages received while in the military), and the established jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Claims; there was no floor action on this bill.83 In the 101st Congress, S. 3191, the Civilian Ex-Prisoner of War Health Benefits Act of 1990, was introduced but had no floor action.
In the 104th Congress, H.Con.Res. 176, calling on Japan to pay reparations and express formal regret to U.S. POWs and civilian internees, was introduced, but there was no hearing and no floor action on this concurrent resolution. H.R. 3084, the Former Civilian Prisoners of War Benefits Act of 1996, dealing with providing medical care and disability benefits for former civilian prisoners of war, was also introduced in the 104th Congress, but no floor action occurred.
The 105th Congress passed P.L. 105-246, the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act which established a Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) with a 3-year term to review and declassify any records which pertained to any person who "... ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin, or political opinion." Although the main focus of this law was Nazi Germany, it also applied to "any government that was an ally of the Nazi Government of Germany".84 In conformance with P.L. 105-246, the President issued Executive Order 13110 of January 11, 1999, which established the IWG. According to a recent account, the IWG has declassified some 1.5 million pages of records dealing with Nazi war crimes, and now the IWG is initiating a second phase, examining records related to Japanese war crimes.85
Action in the 106 th Congress
Legislation. A number of bills and resolutions dealing with compensation for, or apologies to POWs, their search for records, or court suits by POWs who were forced to perform labor by Japanese companies in World War II were introduced in 1999-2000. Among them were:
H.R. 4438, which sought to provide $4 per day plus interest for each day that veterans who survived the Bataan Death March were held as prisoners of war by the Japanese. This bill received an unfavorable executive comment from the Department of Defense and was not reported out of the House Committee on Armed Services.
H.Res. 304, which expressed the sense of the House that Japan should formally issue a clear and unambiguous apology for WWII war crimes and sought release (to the VA or to designated private physicians) of all records in U.S. possession dealing with Japanese experiments on POWs at Mukden, including any received from Japan. This bill was never reported out.
S. 1806 and H.R. 5639, which proposed providing $20,000 to each veteran of Bataan or Corregidor who subsequently was made to perform slave labor by the Japanese. S. 1806's provision for a $20,000 payment was incorporated into the Senate version of the FY2001 Department of Defense Authorization Bill; it was not in the House version.86 This provision was removed from the bill by the conference committee.
S. 1856, which sought to allow federal district courts to hear civil actions to recover damages for injuries to persons and property resulting from actions of the Nazis or their allies, including being "... forced to perform involuntary labor..." or being subjected to "... involuntary medical treatment or experimentation ..." This bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee but not reported out.
S. 1902 and its companion bill, H.R. 3561, which proposed setting up a temporary interagency working group to search classified and other records of the Japanese Imperial Army held by the United States relating to any person who "ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the experimentation and persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin, or political option [sic] during the period beginning September 18, 1931, and ending on December 31, 1948 and releasing those that do not compromise national security." This bill would also apply to any WWII allies of Japan. Although no floor action occurred on S. 1902, a similar but slightly more restrictive provision extending the life of the existing Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group for 3 years and directing it to search out, recommend for declassification, and make public all appropriate classified Japanese Imperial Government records concerning medical experimentation or persecution was inserted into H.R. 5630, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, which became P.L. 106-567.87
S.Con.Res. 158. Late in the second session of the 106th Congress, the House and Senate agreed to S.Con.Res. 158, which although it does not have the force of law, expressed the sense of Congress that
"... it is in the interest of justice and fairness that the United States, through the Secretary of State or other appropriate officials, put forth its best efforts to facilitate discussions designed to resolve all issues between former members of the Armed Forces of the United States who were prisoners of war forced into slave labor for the benefit of Japanese companies during World War II and the private Japanese companies who profited from their slave labor."
Hearings. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on June 28, 2000, on POW survivors of the Bataan Death March in which several POWs described their experiences. The POWs reported being shipped to Japan on ships whose lethal conditions earned them the name "Hell Ships," and then of having to work in mines, steel mills, and elsewhere for Japanese companies. The POWs described being starved, beaten by company employees, and forced to do hard manual labor for companies including Nippon Steel Corporation, Mitsui Mining, and Mitsubishi Mining.88
Also discussed at this hearing was the Statement of Interest of the United States on Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand filed by the Justice Department in the case of Heimbuch vs. Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha recently filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. According to David Ogden, acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, the judge asked:
... whether federal law governs any claims by American soldiers captured and imprisoned by Japan during World War II. Where such claims are directed to private companies, private Japanese companies, for whom such soldiers were forced to work as slaves. And, whether removal of such claims from state court to federal court is proper.
Mr. Ogden stated that in its Statement of Interest the Department of Justice "... expressed the position that such suits were governed by federal law and should be heard in federal court." Next, Ronald Bettauer, State Department deputy legal advisor, testified that the Multilateral Peace Treaty with Japan barred any suits by U.S. citizens against private Japanese companies. Mr. Bettauer also discussed the legislative history of the Treaty and asserted that the Senate indeed meant to cut off the possibility of such suits when it agreed to the treaty.89 Subsequently, complaints from POWs reportedly helped prompt S. Con. Res. 158 (above) that called for the Administration to facilitate discussions between POWs and Japanese companies on the issue of their claims.90
Action in the 107th Congress
H.R. 963 was introduced on March 8, 2001; it proposed a payment of $4 per day plus interest for each day a survivor of the Bataan Death March was held by the Japanese. H.R. 1198 introduced March 22, 2001 and a similar bill, S. 1154, introduced June 29, 2001, would:
- Direct U.S. federal courts not to interpret article 14(b) of the Treaty of Peace with Japan as a waiver of claims which would prevent U.S. POWs from pursuing forced labor suits against Japanese individuals or private corporations.
- Require that the applicable state statute of limitations apply to any such suit.
ÑInsure that article 26 of the Peace Treaty with Japan, which stated that if any war claims settlement by Japan with another country was more beneficial than the terms extended to the United States that those more beneficial terms would apply to the United States, should apply to forced labor suits by United States
POWs.
- Provide that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may secure directly from any department or agency of the United States government information relating to any chemical or biological tests conducted by Japan on members of the U.S. Armed Forces held as POWs in WWII and that such material should be provided to the individual concerned to the extent provided by law.
H.Amdt. 188 (to H.R. 2500, the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002) was introduced on July 18, 2001, and was passed in the House by roll call vote #243 (395-33). It would prohibit the use of any funds, appropriated by this Act for the Departments of Justice or State, from being used for filing a motion in any court opposing a civil action against any Japanese individual or corporation for compensation or reparations in which the plaintiff in the action alleges that as an American prisoner of war during WWII, he or she was used for slave or forced labor.
Efforts to Obtain More Compensation - Legal
Another approach is being pursued by a group of Allied military POWs and civilian internees who have filed several law suits seeking reparations from Japan in Japanese courts. To date, none of these suits has resulted in a victory for the claimants, with the Japanese courts citing the Article 14(b) peace treaty waiver as barring any further compensation to POWs by Japan.91 According to a Los Angeles Times article, Japanese officials point to a 1993 study by the Japanese National Diet Library showing that Japan has paid out more than $27 billion in war compensation to some 27 countries under the terms of the 1951 Treaty and state-to-state settlements.92 (For further information, see also CRS Report 91-216, JapanÕs WWII Reparations: A Factsheet.) However, with regard to U.S. POWs and internees, in a recent federal district court filing, the Department of Justice reportedly said that after WWII the United States seized $90 million in Japanese assets and that $20 million of this money was used to pay for war claims of U.S. POWs and internees.93 The German government, on the other hand, as of January 1, 1998, had paid some $60 billion in WWII reparations, according to data reportedly from the Germany Ministry of Finance cited in a recent conference on Holocaust-Era Assets.94 Germany recently acknowledged responsibility for its treatment of some U.S. civilian internees who were sent to recognized Nazi concentration camps. As noted above, the U.S. Treasury received $18.5 million from Germany and reportedly distributed it to 235 eligible survivors.95
On July 6, 2000, the German parliament passed a law setting up a $5-billion claim fund to pay Nazi-era slave and forced laborers, those experimented on, and some other Holocaust-related claims. At the same time, the parliament also passed a separate resolution apologizing to victims "... for that which Germans did to them, ... [in] taking away their rights, displacement, maltreatment and exploitation ..." The resolution also declared that ÒWith the law, an historic moral duty is redeemed in the form of a long overdue humanitarian and financial gesture."96
Of our WWII Allies, Canada and, subsequently, the United Kingdom decided to pay their POWs compensation. Canada, having concluded that Japan will not pay compensation, has committed to paying each of some 700 still living veterans and surviving spouses of POWs $24,000 Canadian (U.S. $15,600) tax-free as compensation.97 These Canadian payments have begun.98
In early November 2000, the British Ministry of Defense announced a one-time tax-free payment of £10,000 ($15,000) for payment of what the defense minister called a "debt of honor" to each of the 16,700 individuals, including former members of the armed forces, the merchant navy, or civilians who were POWs of Japan; this figure included over 4,500 widows of POWs.99
Attempts to Get CompensationÑState
In July 1999, California became the first state to enact a law allowing claimants to file civil suits in state courts for compensation by any survivor of slave labor imposed by Nazi Germany or its allies; this California law also extended the time to file such suits until 2010. On April 12, 2000, two class action suits were filed by former U.S. and foreign POWs in California Superior Court in Orange County against Mitsui & Co., Nippon Steel U.S.A., Inc., Mitsubishi Co., and their subsidiaries alleging torture, beatings, and forced labor.100 These suits, which are being appealed, were dismissed in late September 2000 with the judge citing the 1951 Treaty as settling all claims.101 As of late May 2000, 28 suits had been filed in California courts on behalf of former prisoners of Japan. Since passage of this California law, an additional 10 states are reportedly considering similar bills or resolutions dealing with damage claims and/or apologies from Japan.102
Very recent developments which might influence the future course of suits against Japanese companies in Japan and perhaps in other countries include the following:
In July 2000 a suit was settled against the Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. by elderly South Koreans who alleged that they were forced laborers in WWII. While the company did not give the Koreans the apology and acknowledgment of responsibility they were seeking, the company agreed to pay them 30 million yen in "settlement money." One of the reasons cited for the company's decision to settle was their knowledge that the plaintiffs were about to join a suit filed in the California courts.103
Four years ago a suit was filed in Japanese court by Chinese who claimed that during WWII they were taken to Japan and made to perform slave labor for the large multinational Japanese construction and mining corporation, Kajima. However, after 4 years of litigation in which Kajima denied any responsibility, in November 2000 the company, while still saying it admitted no responsibility, offered to pay compensation of $4.6 million dollars to the few remaining survivors and the relatives of those who died. This is the first time a suit filed by Chinese slave laborers in the Japanese courts was successful.104
According to a recent New York Times article,105 another development is the increasing willingness of Japanese courts to hear testimony about Japanese atrocities rather than dismissing the case at the beginning. The New York Times cites the ongoing testimony of Yoshio Shinozuka, a member of Unit 731, and other Unit 731 members in a court case brought by Chinese victims of Unit 731 now being held in Tokyo. This is apparently the first time Unit 731 members have been allowed to testify about Unit 731's alleged war crimes in a Japanese court.
Other recent developments noted in the New York Times article were the agreement by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to meet with 50 plaintiffs in two slave labor suits brought by WWII captive foreign workers who allege they were used as slave laborers by Mitsubishi and the recent war tribunal convened in Tokyo by various advocacy groups which highlighted the role of JapanÕs wartime leaders, including Emperor Hirohito, in the sexual slavery of the "comfort women."
Dwindling Numbers of POWS and Internees
Differing calculations have been given for the number of POWs and internees held by Germany and Japan, and differing numbers have been estimated for the number of surviving POWs and internees today as noted in the preceding pages. It is evident, however, that the number of POWs and internees who might be eligible for compensation is small and rapidly dwindling.
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