Mitsubishi apologises to US POWs 70 yrs after WWII

LOS ANGELES: Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials on Sunday made a landmark apology to US prisoners of war forced to work in its mines during World War II, seven decades after the conflict.

The Japanese government only officially apologised to former American POWs five years ago, and Mitsubishi’s initiative appeared to be the first of its kind by a Japanese corporation.

Senior Mitsubishi executive Hikaru Kimura presented a ‘most remorseful apology’ to 94-year-old James Murphy of California, one of just a few surviving US prisoners forced to work in Japan.

Murphy accepted the “sincere, humble” apology.

“For 70 years since the war ended, the prisoners of war who worked for these Japanese companies have asked for something very simple, they asked for an apology,” he said.

Kimura and other company representatives met Murphy and families of other former POWs earlier to express their apology for their being subjected to hard labor during World War II, when they worked in mines operated by Mitsubishi.