Sorry!

[Gob]

Japan's Mitsubishi corporation has made a landmark apology for using US prisoners of war as forced labour during World War Two.

A senior executive, Hikaru Kimura, expressed remorse at a ceremony in Los Angeles that prisoners had been put to work in mines operated by the firm.

It is believed to be the first such apology by a Japanese company.

One of the few surviving former US prisoners forced to work in Japan accepted the apology.

James Murphy, 94, said this was "a glorious day... for 70 years we wanted this.''

It would improve the relationship between Japan and the United States, he added.

Relatives of other former prisoners were also present at the ceremony at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

Mitsubishi is acting independently of the Japanese government which has already issued a formal apology to American prisoners.

Japanese government officials say that it is an important gesture ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in August.

"We hope this will spur other companies to join in and do the same." said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre

[Long Run]

Maybe someone can post a "history" of how we mistreated Japanese prisoners, so we can apologize too, and everyone can let the catharsis wash over them.

The war was won, the peace, too. 70 years gone. Many apologies and remunerations. Well into the 4th generation of peace and freedom. Their culture dramatically changed, and ours evolved. While in the few specific cases, an apology is certainly meaningful, is this really necessary? The government apologized for its barbarity, which included forcing companies to use the slave labor of military prisoners. Those involved in these violations have paid the penalty, and the company today has no resemblance to the one from that era. Not sure what the point of this exercise is.

[wesw]

exactly.

[BoSoxGal]

What possible harm can ever come from such a display of compassion and accountability? There can never be too much truth & reconciliation in the world.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Because its just proforma and without any significant meaning? It's like a modern day Norman apologizing for shooting Harold in the eye - without any true contrition it is just mental masturbation.

The Japs had my uncle Reg in Changi prison camp, Singapore. No apology from anyone would have made any difference to what had happened to him - and he would have laughed and dismissed it as the drivel it truly is

[Big RR]

It did appear to make a difference to Mr. Murphy; and if that's the case, I'm glad the apology was delivered.

Sometimes merely stating what did occur and one's regret are important to the victim(s), other times not. But there's not much else that can be done.

[dgs49]

I don't think corporations have emotions, including "sorry." (NOTE: I sort of work for Mitsubishi now).

Countries, on the other hand, I could buy that. Did the Japs ever apologize for the Bataan Death March and its associated atrocities?

Dave-san

[Big RR]

The Supreme Court said corporations can have free political Speech and a religious identity, so I would think emotions cannot be far behind.

Seriously, however, I think for some victims there is a cathartic effect of having an institution, be a corporation, club, association, or even a country, in acknowledging what was done and admitting it was wrong. FWIW, that why I think Mr. Murphy reacted the way he did. Beyond that, an apology with nothing more smacks of a political expediency.

As for what Japan's referenced apology to prisoners entailed, I really don't know.

[rubato]

Maybe someone can post a "history" of how we mistreated Japanese prisoners, so we can apologize too, and everyone can let the catharsis wash over them.

The war was won, the peace, too. 70 years gone. Many apologies and remunerations. Well into the 4th generation of peace and freedom. Their culture dramatically changed, and ours evolved. While in the few specific cases, an apology is certainly meaningful, is this really necessary? The government apologized for its barbarity, which included forcing companies to use the slave labor of military prisoners. Those involved in these violations have paid the penalty, and the company today has no resemblance to the one from that era. Not sure what the point of this exercise is.

For the most part Japan has been allowed to escape admitting their atrocities in WWII and this has allowed a large ultra-nationalist faction to lie about history and keep the wounds open with their victims.


Just as the American South* was allowed to escape admitting their atrocities during Slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and the systematic exploitation and abuse of blacks up to the present moment. Failure to admit the wrongs, apologize to the victims, and offer atonement, has created much of the evil of the past 150 years and enabled people to state the patent inanities that the south fought "nobly", that the battle flag represents "heritage", or that their evils have ever been "over".

The Mitsubishi apology is one step, not sufficient by itself, but necessary to a future which is less evil than the past. We have to tell the truth about history. We cannot allow others to lie about it. When Iran lies about the holocaust or the South lies about the confederate battle flag you have to stop and correct them.


yrs,
rubato

* and their racist sympathizers elsewhere in the US.

[rubato]

Maybe someone can post a "history" of how we mistreated Japanese prisoners, so we can apologize too, and everyone can let the catharsis wash over them.
.... " .

We did admit our mistreatment of Japanese-American citizens in WWII, and offered atonement. The amount was too small in proportion to the harm we caused and the moral wrong we did but it was still symbolically important to those we had wronged. If we had not done so it would have shamed us. We could not claim to be moral people.


http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/21/us/se ... rnees.html

Senate Votes to Compensate Japanese-American Internees
By IRVIN MOLOTSKY, Special to the New York Times
Published: April 21, 1988

WASHINGTON, April 20— Acting to redress what many Americans now regard as a historic injustice, the Senate today voted overwhelmingly to give $20,000 and an apology to each of the Japanese-Americans who were driven from their homes and sent to internment camps in World War II.

The vote was 69 to 27 and followed an emotional debate. The bill's principal advocate, Senator Spark M. Matsunaga, a Japanese-American from Hawaii, almost wept as, recalling the suffering of internees, he related the story of an elderly man who crossed a fence to retrieve a ball for his grandchild and was machine-gunned to death.

The intensity of the debate, and Mr. Matsunaga's sorrow, seemed to symbolize the agony of conscience the nation has undergone over the internment issue - and the impossibility, despite the best intentions, of making more than a token apology now.

An estimated 60,000 of the 120,000 people interned are still alive. Those sent away as a result of an order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 included 77,000 American citizens and 43,000 legal and illegal resident aliens. The last camp was closed in January 1946.

...

yrs,
rubato