Japan firm told to pay wartime slave labourers

A Filipino human rights lawyer hailed the ruling of the Fukuoka District Court Friday, which ordered Mitsui Mining Company to pay 165 million yen in damages to 15 Chinese men who were brought to Japan as slave labourers during World War II.

"This is a major breakthrough," said Rod Domingo Jr., the lawyer of 1.5 million Filipinos who also became slave labourers during World War II and filed, on May 2000, a similar class suit against Mitsui Mining Company and other Japan conglomerates with the U.S. Superior Court of California.

He said justice for the victims of slave labour during World War II had been "an elusive quest" before this decision. "This (decision) will give impetus to and certainly bring relief to various class actions pending before courts in the United States.

The blatant violation of human rights committed by Mitsui Mining Company, which was to pay 165 million yen to the plaintiffs must be hailed as a victory for all victims all over the world", said Domingo.

The plaintiffs had originally demanded 345 million yen in compensation from the central government and the Tokyo-based company.

The Chinese plaintiffs were among those millions of Asian males captured in 1943 and 1944 and shipped to Japan to be forced to work for Mitsui Mining at its Mike and Tagawa coal mines in Fukuoka Prefecture until the end of the war.