Former Chinese forced laborers and bereaved families petition Diet demanding apology and settlement

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Former Chinese forced laborers and bereaved families petition Diet demanding apology and settlement

About 100 wartime Chinese forced laborers and their bereaved families living in China arrived in Tokyo on October 30 in order to petition the Japanese government as well as the corporations that had used these laborers, demanding that they apologize and settle the issue.

Joined by about 100 Japanese supporters, this delegation on the same day marched in demonstration around the Diet building.

During WWII, under Japan's state policy, some 40,000 Chinese were brought to Japan and forced to work as virtual slaves in various parts of the country.

An 81-year-old forced laborer, Zhang Zhihai, said, "I want justice." He was taken to Hokkaido together with his younger brother and forced to work in a coal mine. On his right wrist still remains a deep scar from an injury in the mine. His brother lost his hearing because a Japanese supervisor beat him in the head over and over again.

In meetings with Dietmembers, the delegation head, Ma Dezhi who is 83 years old, said, "We are aiming at not only settling the issue while we are alive but also establishing a lasting friendship between China and Japan.

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji and six other JCP Dietmembers encouraged the delegation.

The delegation had requested the relevant ministries to send representatives to have a meeting with them, but government officials refused to attend the meeting on the grounds that the issue is pending in court.
- Akahata, October 31, 2006

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Eight members of the former Chinese forced laborers delegation on November 1 visited JCP headquarters in Tokyo to request the cooperation of the JCP for the settlement of the issue.

A Japanese lawyer who accompanied the delegation pointed out that the government and corporations refuse to settle the issue despite the fact that in all lawsuits concerning the issue courts have acknowledged the facts about forced labor in minute detail.

After listening to the forced laborers testimonies, JCP House of Councilors member Yoshikawa Haruko said that in the Diet on the previous day she had asked questions about forced labor and sex slaves during Japan's war of aggression.

Expressing her determination to make efforts to settle the issue, Yoshikawa encouraged the delegates.
- Akahata, November 2, 2006