During World War II, many American soldiers who were prisoners of war in Japan were used for forced labor. According to The Associated Press, more than 12,000 American soldiers were forced to work in 50 different Japanese industries. Major Japanese companies used these POWs as slaves in their mines and industrial plants. AP went on to say that 10 percent of these interned workers died.
James Murphy, a 94-year-old WWII veteran, told AP, "It was slavery in every way: no food, no medicine, no clothing, no sanitation."
The Japanese government officially apologized for those actions and the treatment of U.S. prisoners in both 2009 and 2010, but none of the corporations responsible made the same gesture. It has been about 70 years since World War II, but Mitsubishi Materials Corporation is finally breaking its silence to become the first major Japanese corporation to apologize for using over 900 imprisoned U.S. troops in four mining locations of their predecessor company, Mitsubishi Mining Co. Hikaru Kimura, a senior executive with the corporation, will make the apology in Los Angeles to Murphy and families of other POWs who were forced into labor. Murphy told AP that he held no grudges against his former captors and that he hoped that Mitsubishi's gesture would inspire other corporations to follow suit.