Paying for war slaves

摘要

If it smells, put a lid on it, goes an old Japanese proverb. But it is the wrong prescription for the 30-odd lawsuits that have been lodged in California against Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi and Mitsui on behalf of many Asians and some Allied prisoners of war who were forced into slave labour during the second world war (see page 59). The response of both the government and the companies to all such claims has been to point to the 1951 San Francisco peace treaty. Besides waiving "all reparation claims of the Allied Powers, other claims of the Allied Powers and their nationals" against Japan, the treaty empowered the allies to seize Japanese property to pay reparations to former servicemen. By 1952, America had seized $9om of Japanese assets and paid some of it to former prisoners of war. Germany made no such settlement after its defeat, says Japan, so the $5.2 billion fund organised by its government last year to compensate wartime slave labourers is not a precedent.