Japan's Mitsubishi to offer apology to Chinese forced laborers

TOKYO - Japan's Mitsubishi Materials will offer compensation and apology to Chinese forced laborers it used during the World War II, according to Japan's Kyodo News early Friday, citing sources directly involved in the issue.

If realized, it will mark the first positive step by the company to seek reconciliation with Chinese forced labor victims.

The planned apology to Chinese forced laborers, although not been confirmed by the company immediately after Kyodo's report, came after its unprecedented apology on Sunday to U.S. prisoners of war (POW) used as forced labor by the company.

According a Japanese government report, a total of 3,765 Chinese nationals were used as forced labor in 12 mining sites belonging to the Mitsubishi Materials in wartime and about 720 of them died at that time.

The plan reportedly said that the company will offer all the 3, 765 Chinese with a compensation of 2 million yen (about 16,000 U.S. dollars) for each and sincere apology for its wartime wrongdoings to the victims.

The Mitsubishi will also erect a memorial monument and spend about 200 million yen (about 1.61 million U.S. dollars) to investigate in relevant issues, according to Kyodo.

The report said that the Mitsubishi Materials and the group of Chinese plaintiffs reached an agreement to settle the forced labor case through the compensation and apology plan.

Previous lawsuits filed by Chinese victims were all rejected by Japanese courts.About 40,000 Chinese were forcibly taken or kidnapped to Japan during the World War II and were enslaved as forced labor and about 7,000 of them died at that time.

Japan's ties with China and South Korea, which suffered most from Japan's wartime atrocities, are frayed partially for historical issues, including the compensation and apology to the two countries' forced laborers used by Japanese companies.

Japan and South Korea were at odds when Japan recently tried to enlist a series of its Meiji-era industrial sites on the UN world heritage list as Japan is reluctant to admit that a number of South Korean slave laborers were used in the candidate sites.

It is unclear that what will be the Japanese government's comments on the Mitsubishi's move and whether the Mitsubishi move would set an example for other Japanese companies involved in the forced labor issue to give apology to all the victims.

Earlier reports also said that the Mitsubishi Materials will apologize to former British, Dutch and Australian WWII POWs.