Posted on 07/19/2015 8:32:25 PM PDT by PROCON
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Saying they felt a "deep sense of ethical responsibility for a past tragedy," executives from a major Japanese corporation gave an unprecedented apology Sunday to a 94-year-old U.S. prisoner of war for using American POWs for forced labor during World War II.
At the solemn ceremony hosted by the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, James Murphy of Santa Maria, California, accepted the apology he had sought for 70 years on behalf of U.S. POWs from executives of Mitsubishi Materials Corp.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
They need that central Mecca Medina thing as well as Saudi $$ to rely on. Turn that into fallout, and..............
With his clock ticking we should make a betting pool.
Christmas Eve, to be the most infuriating at the most happy time.
Either this one or the next (I cheated).
Well, better late than never. People are still suffering from the Japanese actions in WWII.
I know a Veteran in his 90’s who was in the Bataan Death March. (You know, where anyone who could not keep moving was shot, and the Japs got so low on ammunition from killing Americans that they started bayonetting them instead, or even beheading them - after torturing them.)
This man still suffers from “Post-Trauma Stress” and every 4th of July is torture for him, because the fireworks going off bring back horrific images and memories.
It was Toshiba. I stopped buying Toshiba products when I learned about those “quiet” propellers. Have never bought another Toshiba product except once and then I got rid of it a week later. Never again.
Remember: False humility is an art in Japan...
Toshiba did that too.
No kiddin’
Hear,hear
Yeah, but this pales in comparison to the dehumanization we bestowed of Iraqis prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, right? I mean, really!
In all seriousness, war is hell. No apologies needed. The goal is to win, nothing short of that. We dropped A-bombs to that effect. The day we become PC about war and the consequences of our actions (and maybe that day is already here), is the day we'll hesitate doing what is necessary to win the damn things. Pity us.
That was Toshiba
International apologies to former foes is in vogue, and thus a perfunctory part of diplomacy, but i don’t think they accomplish very much. Id guess many decendants of yesterdays victors remain privately proud of the historic facts.
It doesn’t look like Bob’s going to thank us.
Thailand?
Don’t forget, these companies entered contracts with their government to house, feed and PAY these men a token wage for their “labor” during this time to try to give this a legal slant on paper. After the war, they not only stiffed the survivors, but our government helped them, claiming it fell under the overall [forgiveness/amnesty?] under the peace treaty.
My late Grandfather was 84 pounds when he got out of the Hitachi copper mine he was a slave in. Given the economic freaking miracle we bequeathed them after the war, you’d think they could at least pony up the $20-30K wages w/ interest to the survivors and put that of the deceased POWs into some type of endowment for their surviving spouses or for making the remainders lives comfortable (along with their Fillipino brothers in arms).
Germans were pretty tight with the demon moon God worshippers, don’t forget that...
(And also Spain, Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Italy)
“Of course, I can remember when they (Mitsubishi) sold the “quiet technology” propellers for Russian subs that we developed too.”
That was Toshiba
Toshiba and a Norwegian company called Kongsberg. Not Mitsubishi.
“Of course, I can remember when they (Mitsubishi) sold the “quiet technology” propellers for Russian subs that we developed too. “
My recollection is that was Toshiba.
Good move. The UK literally gave the Soviets the engine for the MiG-15. It was supposedly a gesture of goodwill. The Soviets thought it had to be a trick because it was utterly not anticipated.
No apologies needed?
The hell you say! For years after the war
American slave soldiers of the Japanese
tried to retrieve compensation from the
Japanese government and/or the companies
engaged in slavery of POWs inside and
outside of Japan during WWII. Some POWs
from other nations did, indeed, receive
compensation. But the US government signed
away the rights of former US POWs to claim
renumeration from the Japanese in the early
part of the 1950s.
True, Japan was devastated as a result of
the war but by the mid 1960s when they were
starting to sell their cars in America while
the US taxpayers paid to provide Japan with
their national defense they could have started down
the honorable path. They didn’t. What Mitsubishi is
doing now is just what many who have long followed
the issue predicted. They ran out the clock.
Screw ‘em.
Of course, that was before every level of government had been infiltrated by our enemies.
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