Senate Bill Would Aid Ex-WWII POWs’ Suits

Fifty-six years after World War II ended, Congress appears poised to send the president a bill that would assist aging former prisoners of war seeking reparations from Japanese companies for their forced labor.

The Senate approved an amendment Monday that would bar the Justice and State departments from spending funds to oppose the former POWs’ slave-labor lawsuits against the Japanese firms. The House approved a similar measure in July.

“I am glad that my tax money can no longer be used to fight me,” said Lester Tenney of La Jolla, a survivor of the Bataan Death March who is among the ex-POWs suing Japanese firms.

The White House had no immediate reaction to the Senate vote. But during a San Francisco ceremony Saturday marking the anniversary of the treaty-signing that officially ended the war, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said that the treaty “dealt with this matter 50 years ago.”

Supporters of the measure said it was designed to give the former POWs their day in court.

“They may have been left behind in 1942 by Gen. [Douglas] MacArthur,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), referring to the soldiers captured in the Philippines. “Let’s not leave them behind one more time.”

But Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), who lost an arm while fighting with the all-Japanese American 442nd regiment in Italy, opposed the measure. He contended that it would violate the 1951 treaty between the United States and Japan and “signal to the world that the United States cares little for its treaty obligations.”

In a California court case the former POWs lost, the State Department contended that the treaty waived claims against Japan for actions taken during the war.

“I strongly support the right of the POWs to seek justice,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). She has introduced legislation to help former POWs press their lawsuits against Japanese companies but voted against the measure Monday.

“I do not think that it is right and proper to enjoin the Department of State and the Department of Justice from offering the court their opinion on the meaning and interpretation of the 1951 treaty,” she said. “That opinion, which may ultimately be determined to be incorrect, is a perfectly legitimate part of the proceedings.”

California’s other senator, Democrat Barbara Boxer, took the opposite position, voting to keep the amendment in the annual spending bill for the Commerce, State and Justice departments. The vote was 58 to 34.

“The State Department should not be allowed to use our tax dollars to fight American POWs in court,” said Harkin, who recounted the ordeals of a constituent whose weight dropped from 168 pounds to 68 pounds during his three years of forced labor in a factory and a mine.

Supporters of the measure disputed contentions that it would violate the treaty. They said Japan has settled with victims of other countries that signed similar treaties.

The issue has been an emotional one in California, where about 1,000 of an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 surviving POWs, most of them in their 80s, have sued Japanese companies. A federal judge in San Francisco last year threw out the suit, but the former POWs plan to appeal. Suits also have been filed in Orange County.

“Here these POWs spent 3 1/2 years in these Japanese prison camps defending our country, and then to come back and find their own State Department taking sides against them in this litigation was very disheartening,” said Daniel S. Casey, an attorney for a group of the former POWs. “The courts are still going to base their decision on the treaty language, as they should.”