Mitsubishi apologizes for using POWs as slave labor during WWII

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

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, Calif., accepted the apology he had sought for 70 years on behalf of U.S. POWs from executives of Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

Hikaru Kimura, senior executive officer for Mitsubishi Materials Corp., said through a translator that the company offered a “most remorseful apology” to about 900 POWs who suffered “harsh, severe hardships” while forced to work in Mitsubishi mines and industrial plants.

Murphy, who toiled in Mitsubishi copper mines and is one of the few left alive to accept such an apology, called it sincere, humble and revealing.

“This is a glorious day,” said Murphy, who stood tall and slender in a gray suit at the ceremony and looked much younger than his 94 years. “For 70 years, we wanted this.”

Murphy stood and shook hands with Kimura and others as cameras clicked throughout the museum theater, with giant American and Japanese flags projected side-by-side behind them.

Other POWs subjected to forced labor sat in the audience along with many members of Murphy’s family.