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Article: Past-due bills for Japan.(lawsuits against Japanese conglomerates for enforced labor of war prisoners during World War II)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- February 7, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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As an Army Air Corps sergeant, James T. Murphy survived the 1942 Bataan Death March in the Philippines, only to be shipped to northern Japan in 1944 and, he says, forced to work in a copper mine run by Mitsubishi employees. "They beat us with clubs, rifle butts, anything handy," Murphy, now 79, recalls from his home in Santa Maria, Calif.
Bong Soo Jang, 80, was forcibly removed from southern Korea in 1944 and, with 19 other men from his province, taken to a coal mine on Japan's northernmost large island, Hokkaido. Only he survived. Back in South Korea after the war, Jang worked for the post office, but "because of [his mistreatment], he was never again a strong ...