Mitsubishi’s apology a long time coming for W.Va. POW

Now 93, he was forced to work during WWII

Private First Class Eddie Jackfert became a free man Aug. 15, 1945.

He had been held as a prisoner of war for three years and four months: Captured in the Philippines, brought to Japan in one of their so-called hell ships, and forced into labor for Japanese companies throughout World War II.

Now 93, Mr. Jackfert will get an apology Tuesday from a private Japanese company at the American Defenders of Bataan & Corregidor Museum, Education, and Research Center in his hometown of Wellsburg, W.Va.

“This thing has gone on for 70 years,” Mr. Jackfert said Wednesday, “and it’s about time somebody should say, ‘I’m sorry.’ ”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles announced Wednesday that Hikaru Kimura, senior executive officer of Mitsubishi Materials Corp., will make a public apology on behalf of the company for using POWs as slave labor in its plants in Japan during the war.

Seven decades after the end of the war, Mr. Brockman said, there’s still little taught in U.S. public schools about this chapter of the war. “There’s only 15 words [in a history book he has read] about Bataan and Corregidor, about the incarceration of American POWs,” Mr. Brockman said. “They don’t talk about the hell ships. They don’t talk about the death march.”

The center is hosting an event at its Museum of Tolerance on Sunday at which Mitsubishi representatives will apologize directly to 94-year-old James Murphy of Santa Maria, Calif., and relatives of other POWs.

On Tuesday, Mr. Kimura and and other Mitsubishi representatives will travel to Wellsburg to visit the ADBC Museum, which curator Jim Brockman said has the largest collection anywhere of documents related to the early defense of the Philippines.

Then, in an address directly to Mr. Jackfert and relatives of other local POWs, Mitsubishi will announce a large donation to the museum to support its educational programming.

“It’s unprecedented,” Mr. Brockman said. “Hopefully, if this goes well, we’ll have more companies come forward and support these efforts.”

Thousands of U.S. soldiers became prisoners during WWII, with many of them transported to Japan on hell ships or held in camps such as those opened in the Phillipines after the Bataan Death March. Many died from poor conditions or from forced labor.

Those transported to Japan worked in steel mills, coal mines and other industries to support the Japanese war effort, all violations of the Geneva Convention.

Mitsubishi used some 900 American POWs at four locations operated by its predecessor, Mitsubishi Mining Co.

Although he was not forced to work for Mitsubishi, Mr. Jackfert, who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940, labored at the Showa Denko Kawasaki factory, where he filled large tanks with ammonia, and on the docks run by Mitsui & Co.

The Japanese government apologized for its treatment of Allied POWs in both 2009 and 2010, but the 1952 Treaty of San Francisco barred POWs from suing Japan or Japanese companies for reparations.

Seven decades after the end of the war, Mr. Brockman said, there’s still little taught in U.S. public schools about this chapter of the war.

“There’s only 15 words [in a history book he has read] about Bataan and Corregidor, about the incarceration of American POWs,” Mr. Brockman said. “They don’t talk about the hell ships. They don’t talk about the death march.”

Mr. Brockman said Mitsubishi’s donation, the amount of which will be announced Tuesday, will make a huge impact on the ABDC Museum.

It operates within the Brooke County Public Library on an annual budget of about $400,000 and attracts just a few thousand visitors a year. It opened in 2002.

The museum plans to work with Brooke County schools to offer programming both at the museum and in classrooms, using its collection of artifacts and documents.

“We’re trying to teach the youngsters that war is nothing but death and destruction,” Mr. Jackfert said.