[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 382 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 382

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives concerning war 
  crimes committed by Japan during World War II and the liability of 
Japanese companies to former prisoners-of-war used by such companies as 
                    slave labor during World War II.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 30, 2003

 Mr. Honda (for himself, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. Taylor of North 
 Carolina, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Frost, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. 
 Johnson of Illinois, Ms. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Farr, Mr. Schiff, Mr. 
 Ross, Mr. Sandlin, Ms. Norton, Mr. Moore, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, 
Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Matheson, Mr. Lantos, Mr. 
 Engel, and Mr. Skelton) submitted the following resolution; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives concerning war 
  crimes committed by Japan during World War II and the liability of 
Japanese companies to former prisoners-of-war used by such companies as 
                    slave labor during World War II.

Whereas the Government of Japan deliberately ignored and flagrantly violated the 
        Geneva and Hague Conventions during World War II, and committed 
        atrocious crimes against humanity;
Whereas 33,587 men and women in the United States military, and 13,966 United 
        States civilians, were captured by the Japanese military in the Pacific 
        Theater during World War II, confined in brutal prison camps, and 
        subjected to severe shortages of food, medicine, and other basic 
        necessities;
Whereas one example of the brutality encountered by United States prisoners-of-
        war was the ``death march'' that followed the surrender of Bataan in the 
        Philippines in April, 1942, when between 550 and 1,000 United States 
        soldiers perished, including many who were shot, stabbed, or beheaded by 
        the Japanese;
Whereas 37.3 percent of those Americans who were placed in Japanese prisoner-of-
        war camps died during their imprisonment;
Whereas Americans captured and interned by the Japanese were forced to work for 
        privately held Japanese companies in severe slave-like conditions, with 
        very little food, dangerous work environments, and no medical care;
Whereas the survivors of Japanese prisoner-of-war camps continue to suffer long-
        term health consequences due to their imprisonment;
Whereas the companies that benefited from the forced labor of American and other 
        prisoners-of-war continued to earn a profit during wartime and beyond; 
        and
Whereas, in contrast to other countries that committed horrific war crimes 
        during World War II, the Government of Japan has still not fully 
        acknowledged the crimes it committed, as well as those committed by 
        private Japanese companies during World War II, and has not provided 
        full compensation to the victims of these actions: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge all 
        of its war crimes committed during World War II and issue a 
        clear and unambiguous apology for those war crimes; and
            (2) Japanese companies that used prisoners-of-war as slave 
        labor during World War II, or the successors of such companies, 
        should compensate those former prisoners, or their survivors, 
        for the labor performed for the commercial interests of such 
        companies, and further compensate those former prisoners, or 
        their survivors, for whatever brutality the companies inflicted 
        on those prisoners during their period of forced labor.
                                 <all>