[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 93 (Thursday, July 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H4545-H4550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     JUSTICE FOR WORLD WAR II POWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kirk). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be here today to address 
the situation of our former American POWs who fought in the Pacific 
Theater during World War II. My commitment to addressing these issues 
is deep-seated. I am proud to be a co-author of the bill H.R. 1198, the 
Justice for U.S. Prisoners of War Act of 2001, with the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Rohrabacher). We are joined by 226 of our House 
colleagues on this bill.
  I am a teacher by training, and I am not an expert on the issue of 
war and the atrocities that all too often accompany the prosecution of 
war between nations. I want to share with Members why I think it is 
important to pay attention to events that happened over 50 years ago.
  My involvement in the pursuit of justice for American POWs stems from 
something that is deeply personal and uniquely American. It is a view 
that is held by a great many of us that are part of the new generation 
of Asian Americans whose parents were born in the United States.
  The roots of my involvement in the POW reparation movement was 
embedded in me as a youth, well before I had any idea about the 
atrocities that some Japanese companies visited upon our servicemen 
during World War II.
  Like many Japanese American families, my family and relatives were 
interned in a camp in Amache, Colorado, in 1942. We were eventually 
able to leave the camp because my father volunteered to serve in the 
Navy's military intelligence service.
  Later in the 1970s and 1980s, the Japanese American redress movement 
focused the United States on coming to terms with the injustices of the 
internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. This shaped my 
desire to set the record straight.
  It was once taboo in my community to discuss the internment issues. 
The redress movement brought the issue out into the open and allowed 
the healing process to begin, and this enabled many of us to put aside 
our bitterness and understand clearly what happened to us in our own 
country during World War II.
  Just as the healing process began in my community, it is my great 
hope that this historic bill will bring some measure of closure for our 
brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were so severely 
mistreated as prisoners of war while educating our Nation about what 
really happened during World War II so that together we can learn from 
the lessons of those dark times.
  As we go forward, it is critical to remember that the relationship 
between the U.S. and Japan is important to our national interests and 
that nothing in this bill is intended to harm the strong friendship the 
United States and Japan have enjoyed for these many decades. But we 
cannot ignore the past and sweep the events of the past under the rug.
  When I think about forgiveness, I think about a friend, Dr. Lester 
Tenney, an American veteran and POW who once told me as he was 
recalling a conversation he had with a fellow POW, his friend said I 
cannot forgive nor forget, and he told his friend if you cannot 
forgive, you are still a prisoner.
  Dr. Tenney's story mirrors what many of the POWs went through. He 
became a prisoner of war on April 19, 1942, with the fall of Bataan in 
the Philippines. A survivor of the Bataan Death March, he was sent in a 
hell ship to Japan where he became part of the slave labor force in a 
Mitsui company coal mine. Dr. Tenney has stated and I quote, ``I was 
forced to shovel coal 12 hours a day, 28 days a month for over 2 years, 
and the reward I received for this hard labor was beatings by the 
civilian workers in the mine. If I did not work fast enough or if the 
Americans had won an important battle, the beatings would be that much 
more severe.''
  It is important to stress that this legislation we have introduced, 
H.R. 1198, is by no means an instrument to further anyone's agenda that 
fosters anti-Asian sentiments, racism, or Japan bashing. What this bill 
will do is to give our veterans their long-awaited day in court, 
restore some measure of dignity to them, and set the record straight. 
Our intention in pushing for this bill, the Justice for U.S. Prisoners 
of War Act of 2001, is to support our former prisoners of war held in 
Japan during World War II. These heroes survived the Bataan Death March 
only to be transported to Japan in death ships, forced to work for 
private companies under the most horrendous and horrific conditions.
  Private employees of these companies tortured and physically abused 
our GIs while the corporations withheld essential medical and even the 
most minimal amounts of food.
  After the war, approximately 16,000 POWs returned, all battered and 
nearly starved to death, many permanently disabled, all changed 
forever. More than 11,000 POWs died in the hands of the Japanese 
corporate employers, among the worst records of physical abuse of POWs 
in recorded history.
  Now, like many other victims of World War II era atrocities, the 
remaining survivors and their heirs are seeking justice and historical 
recognition of their ordeal. The former POWs do not seek any action or 
retaliation against the current Japanese Government or against the 
Japanese people, nor do they seek to portray Asian Americans in any 
sort of negative light. Rather, they simply seek just compensation from 
the Japanese companies who were unjustly enriched by the slave labor 
and sufferings.
  The main problem these POWs face today has been the way in which the 
peace treaty with Japan has been interpreted by our State Department. 
To date, the State Department has asserted that former POWs can claim 
no benefits due to the State Department's

[[Page H4546]]

interpretation of the terms of the peace treaty.
  However, other countries such as the Netherlands, Spain, and even the 
former Soviet Union, have helped their nationals in receiving benefits, 
and Japan has extended more favorable peace treaty settlement terms 
with those countries, and has continued to settle war claims by 
nationals of other countries.
  The United States State Department has stood in the way of our POWs' 
efforts to obtain their measure of justice by the State Department's 
reading of the peace treaty.
  In the face of these obstacles, Congress passed a resolution, S. Con. 
Res. 158, in the final days of the 106th Congress, calling upon the 
State Department to put forth its best efforts to facilitate 
discussions designed to resolve all issues between the former members 
of the Armed Forces of the United States who were prisoners of war 
forced into slave labor for the benefit of the Japanese companies 
during World War II and the private companies who profited from this 
slave labor.
  Today, the State Department has apparently taken no significant 
actions to resolve this matter. It is, therefore, up to this Congress 
to press this issue firmly and fairly. Our bill is a balanced and fair 
response to the situation. H.R. 1198 would, one, pursue justice through 
the U.S. court system as any former employee of a private company can; 
two, allows States such as California to extend the statute of 
limitations applicable to these claims for a period of up to 10 years; 
and, three, require any U.S. Government entity to provide the 
Department of Veterans Affairs any medical records relating to chemical 
or biological tests conducted on any POW and make those available to 
the POW upon request.

  Since the end of World War II, the Japanese corporations that abused 
these former POWs profited from their forced labor have prospered 
enormously. Many of these companies are household names in the United 
States. As an ethical and moral matter, they long ago they should have 
voluntarily reached out to their victims and settled this injustice.
  On the eve of America's entrance into World War II, former U.S. 
Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Sr., once asked, ``What 
constitutes an American? Not color, nor race, nor religion. Not the 
pedigree of his family, nor the place of his birth. Not the coincidence 
of his citizenship. Not his social status, nor his bank account. Not 
his trade, nor his profession.
  ``An American is one who loves justice and believes in the dignity of 
man. An American is one who will fight for his freedom and that of his 
neighbor. An American is one who will sacrifice property and security 
in order that he and his children may retain the rights of free men. An 
American is one in whose heart is engraved the immortal second sentence 
of the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'
  ``Americans have always known how to fight for their rights and their 
way of life. Americans are not afraid to fight. They fight joyously in 
the pursuit for a just cause.''
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to stand here today in the House of 
Representatives and give you my word that I will continue to fight 
joyously in the just cause of America's World War II POWs. We must 
remember these men, these men of our Nation's greatest generation. They 
volunteered to serve our country and some were only 17, 18, 19 years 
old. They were young, strong, and spirited. They survived the ordeal of 
a forced surrender in the Philippines. They survived the cruelties of 
the Bataan Death March, the hell ships, and being POWs in Japan. They 
survived the tortures of slavery. And today, they are surviving our 
justice system.
  In the beginning of this year, there were only 5,300 surviving POWs, 
but we are losing these men on a daily basis. For the sake of these 
men, for the sake of reconciliation, for the sake of our future, we 
must do right by these men. Let us give these heroes their day in 
court.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher).
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, let me draw Members' attention to the 
job that the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is doing for these 
noble Americans. He did not have to do this, but he has put enormous 
energy into this bill to bring justice to the survivors of the Bataan 
Death March. He has my respect, and I am very, very proud to be working 
with the gentleman on this issue.
  I could not help but think as he read the definition of what is an 
American, that the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) himself 
represents the essence of what he was reading: an American is someone 
who stands for justice first and foremost. Thank goodness we have 
people who are taking time to care about those people who defended our 
country.
  Eisenhower once said that any country that forgets its defenders will 
itself soon be forgotten.
  Mr. Speaker, there are no greater heroes that we have today than 
those heroes that survived the Bataan Death March. There is no group of 
survivors of any war to whom we owe a greater thanks; but yet who we 
have done a great injustice through our inaction, through our 
unwillingness as a government to step up to do what was right by them.

                              {time}  1930

  There are many such causes around, good causes. This is one good 
cause.
  I got personally involved in this because this issue happens to touch 
my family. My wife's father passed away about 10 years ago, and when we 
were married 5 years ago, at our wedding my wife was given away by 
Uncle Lou, now the great male patriarch of our family, because my 
father has passed away as well.
  Uncle Lou is a survivor of the Bataan Death March. What he told me 
surprised me. I was totally surprised when I heard about what had 
happened.
  First of all, and I went to several of the reunions they have of the 
Mukden survivors. The Mukden survivors are the people who survived the 
Bataan Death March and then were sent on to Manchuria where, I might 
add, they not only were worked as slave laborers, but many times used 
for experiments and many of them were brutally murdered by their 
Japanese guards.
  What he told me is that originally, of course, they felt that they 
had been betrayed by their countrymen, or at least had been hung out to 
dry, as you say, by our fellow Americans who they believed in. My Uncle 
Lou was unfortunate enough, like these other Bataan Death March victims 
and survivors, to be stationed in the Philippines just prior to the 
Japanese attack in December of 1941. They fought hard and they 
retreated back to the Bataan Peninsula, where they were able to hold 
out for months against overwhelming odds. And their relief never came. 
It just never came. They were supposed to hold out until the Americans 
came forward.
  Now, could we have saved them? We had a tremendous attack on Pearl 
Harbor that eliminated much of our strength in the Pacific. Maybe we 
were not able to. Maybe with the ships and planes we had available, if 
we tried a rescue mission, we would not have succeeded. Maybe that was 
the right decision to make by our military, not to go there to rescue 
these men.
  Then as they went through this horrific death march and captivity, 
which we will discuss in a moment, and then sent off to work as slave 
labor, those who were fit for slave labor duty in Japan and Manchuria.
  After the war again they believe they were hung out to dry, because 
again, rather than coming to their assistance and their aid, the United 
States decided to cut a deal, and that is what the treaty with Japan in 
1951, the peace treaty, represents, a deal that was cut with the 
leadership in Japan and of the way we would handle ourselves in a 
peaceful world.
  It was a peace treaty. But instead of including in the peace treaty a 
consideration for these brave heroes, who had never been compensated by 
the Japanese or given an apology, not even an official apology issued 
for the way they were treated, instead of holding out for at least 
letting them have some modicum of justice, we cut the deal.
  The deal in the treaty says that they would not be able to sue. They 
would

[[Page H4547]]

not be able to sue for compensation for the crimes committed against 
them. This was part of an overall thing, that nobody is going to be 
able to sue.
  Well, guess what? There is another portion of the treaty, because 
that portion that I just mentioned of the treaty is always held up by 
the State Department and they say, oh, we cannot let these Bataan Death 
March survivors sue the Japanese corporations that worked them as slave 
labor because that would violate the treaty. All of a sudden it would 
open up a Pandora's box. It would just destabilize the entire 
relationship we have with Japan.
  But, no, there is another part of the treaty, and that part of the 
treaty says, and I do not have the quote right here in front of me, but 
it says that if any rights are given to the people of any other country 
by Japan that are not included in this treaty as rights of Americans, 
then those rights that Japan has given to the other people 
automatically also become the rights of the Americans.
  Well, guess what? Japan has permitted their companies in their 
country to be sued by others who were victimized during the Second 
World War. The Dutch and most recently Chinese citizens are able to 
sue, and I believe they received $85,000 apiece in compensation.
  This clearly then suggests by this section of the treaty that the 
Americans should have a right to sue for those crimes and those losses 
and to compensate them for those losses and crimes against them during 
the war. But instead, our State Department continues, continues, to 
hold that, no, this would destabilize our relationship with Japan, 
ignoring that portion of the treaty that permits Americans to have the 
very same rights, legal rights, that other citizens are granted by the 
Japanese.
  So what we have is a travesty. America's greatest war heroes, and 
their greatest adversary is not the Japanese, but, instead, their own 
government.
  Yesterday in a court in California these Bataan Death March survivors 
again attempted to state their case and to bring their case against a 
Japanese corporation which had worked them during the Second World War. 
It is a travesty that representatives of their government, of us, of 
us, the United States of America, U.S., our representatives, paid for 
by our tax dollars, were in that court, not to pay homage to these 
great Americans who sacrificed so much for our freedom, but instead to 
offer a brief to the court, to offer their own testimony to the court, 
of why the court should not even consider the case of these brave 
Americans.

  Talking about adding insult to injury. The movie Saving Private Ryan 
and The Code Talkers and all these other movies that are now at last 
coming forward to show not just action-adventure type movies we had in 
the '50s or '60s, but instead to demonstrate the true heroism of that 
generation of Americans that saved us during the Second World War, we 
have those movies, and the American people feel that we owe that 
generation a great debt, and we do. But what kind of debt do we have 
when we sit and let our government, our government, using our tax 
dollars, thwart the efforts of the greatest of the heroes of that war 
to receive some sort of justice for the crimes that were committed 
against them?
  Do not tell me about Saving Private Ryan. Do not tell me about The 
Code Talkers and the rest of these, how they made you cry, when we have 
got people who are our heroes and went through that savagery and took 
the blows for us, who are now being thwarted in their attempt for 
justice by our own government.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) and I have tried to do our 
best to put at least the legislative branch of government on record, to 
be on the side of these Bataan Death March survivors. We have tried our 
best. I will have to say that the President, I do not know if he even 
knows about this issue, but I will say that he should, and if he hears 
about it tonight, he should intervene and make sure that his State 
Department, the people who he has appointed there, do not continue on 
this insult and this attack on the dignity and honor of the Bataan 
Death March survivors.
  But at least we have tried here in the legislative branch. We have 
227 bipartisan cosponsors of this legislation, of H.R. 1198. The 
gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) has worked hard on this, as I 
say, and I have worked hard, and we have done our best on this 
legislation, and that is that over half the Members of Congress are 
cosponsors of this bill to bring justice to the Bataan Death March 
survivors.
  Who can stand against it, you ask? Well, we have not yet been able to 
get a hearing on this bill. We have yet to get the committee chairman, 
the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), I might add, to agree 
to have a hearing on this bill. There is always a reason, of course. 
There is an excuse. But the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Sensenbrenner) could have a hearing on this bill, if he so chooses. But 
we do not.
  I would suggest that the leadership of the House has not stepped 
forward to try to put pressure on those that are getting in the way of 
this bill, to make sure we get a hearing on this bill. I would think 
that those people who are reading the Congressional Record or listening 
tonight might want to call the White House and ask the President to 
make sure that we do right by the Bataan Death March survivors and we 
quit assigning members of the State Department to go into court to 
undercut their efforts to sue the people who tortured them and worked 
them as slave labor in World War II. I would suggest even calls to the 
leadership of the House, or to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Sensenbrenner) might be an appropriate thing to see if we can move this 
legislation forward.
  But we did not wait just for this legislation. There was another 
attempt that the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) and I worked out 
of how we might be able to get a vote on this, even though we were 
being thwarted in getting this bill to the floor.

  Last year when the appropriations bills were going through, we wrote 
an amendment to the Commerce, State and Justice appropriations bill 
that stated that no one in the State Department could use the funds in 
that bill in order to thwart the efforts of American citizens to sue 
the Japanese corporations that had worked them as slave labor during 
the war for compensation for that slave labor. So we basically were 
putting the essence of H.R. 1198 into the appropriations bill as a 
limitation so that no money could be used for that, meaning they could 
not pay the salary of anybody, they could not send them out, because 
that was using money, appropriated money, for that end.
  That amendment caused a great deal of stir in this body, because we 
had at last got something on the floor. Some people thought that it was 
going to be ruled out of order. In fact, I believe the leadership felt 
it was going to be ruled out of order. But the person who was occupying 
the Chair when someone was asked to rule whether or not the amendment 
was in order, the person in the Chair took a look at it and said no, 
that is in order, and the shock waves could be felt all over the world.
  Of course, it did not come up for a few days, and during that time 
period, the Japanese lobby went into full gear, and I am sorry to say 
that many Americans who you would never believe would take money to 
undercut America's heroes, people who, yes, it does bring tears to 
their eyes when they see movies like Saving Private Ryan, people who 
have made their whole lives helping the veterans, signed on to the 
effort of the Japanese companies to undermine that effort on our part 
to amend the appropriations bill, and, I might add, to undercut the 
bill of the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) and myself, H.R. 
1198.

                              {time}  1945

  There was enormous pressure brought, but when the bill came to the 
floor in the House, we won overwhelmingly. It was an overwhelming vote. 
Only 33 votes were against us.
  Well, it also passed the United States Senate, the appropriations 
vote in the United States Senate. Senator Bob Smith from New Hampshire 
put forward the very same amendment, exact wording; so we had on both 
sides, the United States Senate by a majority and in the House by a 
huge majority, voted for that very same language to make sure that our 
tax dollars were not being used to undermine the rights of the Bataan 
Death March survivors. And guess what happened?

[[Page H4548]]

  We have a process here, which is if there is any difference between 
the Senate appropriations bill and a House appropriations bill, they 
meet in a conference committee. The rules are supposed to be that they 
only make changes in those parts of the bills that have a difference. 
Those are the rules. But, of course, who cares for the rules when they 
have lobbyists paying millions of dollars in order to make just one 
point, or when they are going to have some argument: Oh, we have to 
protect the stability of the relationship between Japan and the United 
States, because everything will just go to pieces if we permit these 
Americans, these heroes, to sue the Japanese corporations that worked 
them as slave labor.
  Of course, the Japanese relations with the Chinese and with the Dutch 
have not gone to pot. No, only with Americans would that be considered 
an insult, for us to stand up for our people over these Japanese 
companies, huge multinational companies, huge Japanese corporations 
worth billions of dollars. Yes, they cannot afford to do justice by 
these people whom they treated like animals during the Second World 
War.
  So behind the scenes in a conference committee where we are only 
supposed to change the things that are different between the House and 
the Senate, someone stepped forward to take out this provision. These 
were provisions that passed on the floor of both Houses. Now, somebody 
is negating the democratic process here. Somebody, I do not know who, 
somebody is negating the democratic process on an issue that concerns 
America's greatest heroes; and we need to step up to the plate and make 
sure that it does not happen again.
  Those listening or those reading the Congressional Record should know 
that the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) and I are planning again 
to offer this same amendment to the appropriations bill, but this time, 
we are going to draw the bead of the American people. We are going to 
focus people's attention on the conference committee so that behind 
closed doors, we will find out who it is that takes away the rights of 
the Bataan Death March survivors for their justice. We will find out 
who intercedes to negate the democratic process and behind closed 
doors, do this dirty deed to America's greatest heroes. We will find 
that out, and we will come to this floor, and we will make sure that 
the American people know exactly who it is that is doing this. Because 
the American people need to know if the democratic process is going to 
be thwarted, who it is here who is doing that, especially at the 
expense of these brave, brave men.
  That will probably be in the next few months. I am not sure when the 
appropriations bill will be coming, it probably will be coming sometime 
in September, but we will be drawing people's attention to it, and I 
hope that people pay attention to this issue. It is only if we mobilize 
American opinion that we are going to be able to thwart those who are 
trying to thwart democracy.
  Let us take a look at that. Let us take a look at it. How many people 
are we talking about? After the war, approximately 16,000 POWs 
returned. These were people that returned, some of them were turned 
into walking skeletons; most of them had had the most traumatic times 
in their lives, both physically and mentally. They had seen their 
friends murdered in front of them, butchered. Sixteen thousand 
returned, and 11,000 POWs died in the hands of their Japanese corporate 
employers. These Japanese companies and the Japanese government had the 
worst record of abuse of their prisoners in World War II, and that is 
saying a lot.
  Unfortunately, of the 16,000 that returned, only 2,000 remain alive 
today. It is up to us to set the record straight and to do what is 
right and to bring justice to these 2,000 men, if for nothing else, in 
memory of those many other thousands that have died waiting for 
justice, and the many thousands who died before them at the hands of 
these Japanese corporations and the Japanese prison guards.
  Uncle Lou, my wife's great uncle, told me of his capture in the 
Bataan Death March at Bataan and details of the Bataan Death March and 
of the Filipino people who were watching this from the side. By the 
way, the Bataan Death March had many, many Filipinos as well, not just 
American soldiers, but Filipino soldiers. We are about to do justice to 
those Filipino soldiers, by the way, for the first time, thanks to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) from San Diego, and some others 
of us; I am sure the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is on this 
bill as well. We promised the Filipinos who served with us that they 
would get veterans' benefits, the same veterans' benefits as the 
Americans who served in World War II.

  Mr. Speaker, this is a black mark on our government again. We just 
betrayed them. We just took them out of the loop. I think it was in 
1948 that we reneged on that promise. But these Filipino soldiers who 
were with us, they died by the thousands as well. The Filipino people, 
the citizens would see these poor people coming by, these brave 
Americans and Filipinos who were being treated in this way, by the 
sword-swirling Japanese who were cutting their heads off if they 
dropped out of line, and they had no water, and the Americans with the 
heat; it was a horror story, the Bataan Death March.
  But the Filipino people would throw little packets of food or little 
containers of water on them. If they did, they knew that if the 
Japanese guards saw them, that they would be murdered, but they took 
that chance to help these brave souls, these heroic people. They did 
that at such great risk that some of them lost their lives when the 
Japanese guards would come right over and bayonet them to death.
  Do we not have the courage to do something? We are not going to lose 
our lives. Do we not have the courage to step forward, or the caring in 
our heart to step forward to help these heroes as they march by?
  This is a black mark on this Congress that we permitted that 
provision to be taken out behind closed doors in that conference 
committee. It is a black mark that this bill that the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Honda) and I have worked on, H.R. 1198, has not been 
brought to the floor. This is a black mark. This is a shameful episode.
  We can make it right, Mr. Speaker, but we have to have the support of 
the American people to do so. In the months ahead when we bring this 
forward and try to put this amendment on the Commerce, State, and 
Justice appropriations bill, we need to have everyone there focused on 
this issue. I would hope the veterans' organizations, which they were 
the last time around, will join us.
  By the way, one other reason I feel so deeply about this is that my 
father also served in the Philippines as one of the liberators after 
the war. He too had a very high opinion of the Filipino people, and he 
flew DC-3s up and down the battle areas as we liberated the Philippines 
from the Japanese. And it was a very bloody battle, and many people 
risked their lives and many people lost their lives. Many people 
remained. That truly was, that generation truly was the great 
generation.
  So we have a chance now to repay that debt. We have now a chance to 
send the message that we believe in justice and even if it is justice 
delayed, we will do our part to try to bring this honor, this honor 
that these men, the survivors of the Bataan Death March who were the 
heroes of all of those people, like my father who went after them, it 
was their courage that inspired my father and others to be involved.
  Let us know this: This is not an anti-Japanese piece of legislation. 
The gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) would be the last person who 
would come forward and try to do something anti-Japanese. The fact is 
that many people in Japan, and I would say if not most of the people in 
Japan, understand that there were things that were done wrong in World 
War II.
  As we know, our own Japanese Americans who joined up in our own 
military were some of the most decorated war heroes in World War II. Of 
course, they used them in Italy and in the European theater, but they 
were heroic. So we know that. This is not against the Japanese 
Americans and it is not against the Japanese people, because we know 
that they would like to make it right and move on.
  After all, the Germans, after World War II and in the decades since, 
tried to make it right, some of the evil

[[Page H4549]]

things that they did. And they knew that it was not them, they did not 
do wrong; it was another generation of Germans that did that. But they 
have not run away from their history.
  Mr. Speaker, there are many people in Japan who want to shut the 
book. Let these Japanese corporations, if they do not want us to go 
through this, let them step forward and make a settlement with the 
Bataan Death March survivors. Let them make a settlement. But we are 
not going to stand by and let them just be tortured with silence after 
they had been tortured and worked as slave laborers during the war. We 
will not let the indignity of the crime against them, and the 
indignities that they had to suffer, we will not let that continue and 
go without being addressed.
  As I say, there are many Japanese who would like to see the book 
closed, and I would plead with the powers in Japan to step forward and 
just close this book, get it over with.

                              {time}  2000

  This will not disrupt American-Japanese relations. Those people who 
are suggesting that, they are just using la-la words, meaningless 
phrases and words, to try to say something that would justify the 
insult that they are giving to America's greatest war heroes; or 
perhaps they have been lobbied by someone, someone who they respect or 
they owe a special favor to, who told them not to vote for this, or to 
oppose it in some way.
  This is not going to disrupt American-Japanese relations. The 
corporations that we are talking about are worth billions of dollars. 
They can afford to compensate these men who they treated as animals and 
dogs, and beat. They can afford it. In fact, it would be money well 
spent, because it would establish a tie, a bond between all of us, 
knowing that they were willing to do it. There would be no disruption 
of American relations. It is ludicrous to say that.
  So tonight we draw attention to this bill, to this piece of 
legislation that has not been permitted on the floor, or that the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) has not seen fit to have a 
hearing on. We draw attention to the Japanese people; let us work 
together and bring justice and close this book. Let us honor these 
American heroes and recognize that the Japanese people are not the same 
people who had been brainwashed, as they were; the Japanese had been 
brainwashed for generations to react the way they did to orders during 
World War II.
  But that has to be recognized, that there were crimes in World War 
II, and acknowledged and forgiven and forgotten, because there are so 
many things; and we have such close ties with the Japanese people now, 
and it is a wondrous thing.
  Certainly Japanese-Americans, again, have proven their patriotism, 
just with their honor and courage. And the fact that the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Honda) is one of the leaders in this demonstrates again 
just how willing they are to step up to the plate and be patriotic 
Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I just close with this thought about my father, and the 
many fathers who fought in the Philippines and who fought in that 
generation. Some of them are lost to us now. We will do what is right 
by them, and we will honor them by doing what is right. What is right 
is not to forget the Bataan Death March survivors while any of them 
survive. Two thousand survive. Let us not let them pass away until we 
have done justice by them.
  In this way, we will do honor by them; but we will make sure that our 
own country stands for liberty and justice and freedom, and these 
things that the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) just mentioned a 
few moments ago. If we are Americans, we are going to stand for these 
things, and we are going to stand together. Sometimes that means 
overpowering certain special interest groups that maybe have influence 
here. But no interest group can stand up to the American people if they 
are motivated and if they understand what the issues are.
  So let us join together and let us make sure we do what is right by 
the survivors, to the survivors of the Bataan Death March, and let us 
pass H.R. 1198. Let us make sure that bill gets to the floor, and let 
us make sure that our amendment on the Commerce-State-and-Justice 
appropriations bill is passed and remains in the bill, and is not taken 
out behind closed doors this time.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend, the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), for his passion, for his conviction, 
and for his understanding of what it is that we need to do, and for his 
precise words that hopefully, as in church we say, convicts us to move 
and do the right thing.
  A couple of words I would like to close with. One is ``spirit'' and 
the other is ``reconciliation.''
  The spirit that I have learned in this process is the spirit of the 
victims, the ex-POWs, the spirit that was exhibited by Dr. Lester 
Tenney, by Mr. Frank Bigelow from Florida, who at 6-4, as a young man 
hunched over in the tunnels of the coal mines in Japan, had his leg 
broken by a boulder that fell down and shattered his leg; no medical 
facilities, no medical attention.
  In a couple of days they realized that his leg was gangrenous, and 
they needed to do something in order to save his life. The choice was, 
do we amputate his leg and take the chance that he may die because of 
that, or do we allow the gangrene to continue and know that he will 
die? And he said, take it, and they took it with a pocket knife and a 
hacksaw and no anesthesia.
  Yet today, both Dr. Tenney and Frank Bigelow have the spirit and the 
grace to say that they forgive what had happened to them, and what they 
seek today is just justice in their own court system.
  The other word is ``reconciliation.'' We just left a millennium of 
wars and atrocities, of the inhumanity of one person against another 
for many reasons. We have an opportunity in the new millennium to make 
this the millennium of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of healing.
  I believe if this bill is passed and considered by our committees 
that is supported by over 226 Members of this House, that would move 
right through our committees if heard, that would move right to the 
President's desk, and to be signed by him would be the stroke that 
would allow our Members, the generation that we consider the greatest 
generation of our time in this country, to be able to attain the 
measure of dignity, the recapturing of justice, that they would seek 
and would attain when they have their day in court.
  That is all we are seeking. We are not seeking to predetermine the 
outcome of the court action, but we are seeking their right for their 
day in court.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank my 
distinguished colleague Mr. Honda for organizing this special order to 
raise awareness of the former POW's who were used as slave laborers in 
Japan during World War II. This is a particularly important veteran's 
issue to me and my constituents because of the significant role that 
New Mexicans played in the South Pacific during World War II. I am very 
glad to have this opportunity to come here tonight to honor those brave 
soldiers who battled in Bataan.
  Shortly after the United States formally declared their entry into 
World War II, American forces stationed in Bataan, Luzon, and 
Corregidor on the southern coast of the Philippines began their valiant 
six-month defensive struggle against overwhelming Japanese military 
forces. Included in these American and Philippine forces were New 
Mexico's 200th and 515th Anti-Aircraft Coast Artillery units. In fact, 
when the Japanese bombed Clark Field and Fort Stotsenberg, Philippine 
Islands on December 8, 1941, eight hours after the attack on Pearl 
Harbor, the 200th Coast Artillery was the first to fire on the enemy.
  The superior numbers of Japanese forces, however, compelled these 
brave American and Philippine forces to surrender on April 9th, 1942, 
and then forced them to commence the horrifying 85-mile Death March to 
the now infamous Japanese prison camps north of Manila. It is estimated 
that during the march over 10,000 American and Filipino soldiers died 
as a result of malnutrition and torture. Following the march, the 
thousands of men fortunate enough to survive were subsequently placed 
on ``hell ships'' and transferred to Japan, Taiwan, Manchuria, and 
Korea to perform slave labor in support of the Japanese war industry.
  The American soldiers captured on Bataan, Luzon, and Corregidor 
endured a longer captivity--over three and a half years--than any other 
POW's in World War II. Of the approximately 36,000 U.S. soldiers who 
were captured by the Japanese during World War II,

[[Page H4550]]

only 21,000 survived to return to the U.S. at the end of the war. Of 
the 1,800 men deployed in New Mexico's 200th and 515th Coast Artillery 
Regiments, fewer than 900 returned to the United States after the three 
and a half years of captivity.
  Today, the men forced to perform slave labor in the Japanese 
corporations still await their just and overdue compensation and 
recognition for the labor performed. Recently, however, a California 
law was enacted that enables these men to seek damages up to the year 
2010 against responsible Japanese companies. Seventeen lawsuits have 
been filed on behalf of former POWs, but their claims are currently 
pending in the California State court system and have been since they 
were filed in 1999.
  Over the past few years, the U.S. government has helped facilitate 
the resolution of claims for thousands of individuals who were forced 
to perform slave labor for German companies during World War II. 
However, the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice have 
been opposing, rather than supporting, the claims of the U.S. POW's who 
were forced to perform slave labor in Japan.
  I am a cosponsor and strongly support the important legislation 
introduced by several Members present at this special order today, H.R. 
1198. ``The Justice for U.S. POWs Act of 2001,'' will allow POW suits 
against Japanese companies to go forward without interference from the 
Department of State. This legislation has broad bipartisan support and 
I am hopeful that we can soon bring this legislation before the full 
House for consideration to help bring compensation and recognition for 
the hardship these POW's endured at the hands of their captors.
  Finally, I would like to invite my colleagues here as well as anyone 
else to visit the recently dedicated Bataan Memorial Park in 
Albuquerque, New Mexico. This touching memorial is a poignant reminder 
of the sacrifices made by both the living and the dead for the freedoms 
we enjoy today.
  Again, thank you Mr. Honda for organizing this special order. I look 
forward to working with you further to bring H.R. 1198 to the floor for 
passage.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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