Bukidnon solon backs Filipino slave workers' case vs Japanesefirms

An opposition congressman supported yesterday the decision of Filipinos forced into slave labor by Japanese companies during World War II to file a case in the United States against these firms.

"An expression of solidarity is the least we can do for our aggrieved countrymen" said Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon).

He said he will push for the approval of a resolution supporting the case against several Japanese firms.

Some 1.5 million Filipinos were forced to work for free under sub-human conditions for these companies in the last war, according to the complaint filed with the US Superior Court in California last week.

The complainants are seeking wages and damages for themselves and the heirs of slave workers who have died.

Zubiri said although Japanese reparations have helped heal the wounds of the last war, "slave labor is a wartime atrocity that has yet to be indemnified."

He said other countries which fell under German or Japanese occupation have supported their citizens' quest for justice and indemnification for forced labor.

The California class suit identifies the Japanese firms which allegedly employed slave labor.

These include Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Sumitomo Corp., Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, Ishihara Corp., Kureha Corp., Toyo Construction, Toyo Trust and Banking Corp., Furukawa Electric, Daiwa Corp., Taiheiyo Cement, and Showa Denko.

"Each defendant capitalized on slave/forced labor during World War II," the complaint read.

Ruben Resus and retired Col. Vicente Novales, a founding member of the Hunters Guerrillas formed in 1942, will represent the victims during the trial in California.

The two were forced to work without pay and food in a cotton farm in Cavite run by Toyo-Boseki.

The Japanese firms were charged with violating the Law on Nations, which prohibits slave labor.

The complaint was filed in California because a state law sets aside rules on prescription of lawsuits and gave those seeking justice for atrocities during the last war until Dec. 31, 2010 to lodge their complaints. --