Kan Cuihua (L 1), representing her 96-year-old father Kan Shun, and two other forced laborers, reach agreement with Mitsubishi Materials Corp on June 1, 2016. (Photo/Chinanews.com)
(ECNS) -- Chinese labor forced to work for Japan during World War II will now continue lawsuits against the Japanese government after Mitsubishi Materials Corp reached an agreement to apologize and pay compensation.
Kan Cuihua, representing her 96-year-old father Kan Shun, and two other forced laborers signed an agreement in Beijing on June 1 with Mitsubishi, one of dozens of Japanese companies that used conscripted Chinese laborers.
Under the settlement, Chinese who were forced to work at coal mines and other facilities in Japan will receive an apology and individual payments of 100,000 yuan ($15,196). It also applies to families of workers who have died, making an estimated 3,765 in total.
Kan said her father was moved to tears by the company's decision after more than two decades of difficult court cases and appeals. But he insists that the Japanese government should also apologize because Chinese laborers were above all the victims of Japanese government persecution.
After he was brought to Japan and forced to work in coalmines in 1944, Kan endured humiliation and torture that still haunts him today, said his daughter from her home in Tangshan City of Hebei Province.
Pan Guoping, a lawyer for the alliance of groups representing forced laborers, said legal action against the Japanese government is meant to pressure it to face history and bring fairness and justice to Chinese victims.
"We still wish the Japanese government could learn from Germany and set up fund to provide compensation to forced labor," he said.
About 40,000 Chinese were sent to Japan in the early 1940s as forced laborers to make up for a domestic labor shortage. Many died due to violence and malnutrition amid harsh treatment.
Beginning in the 1990s, Chinese forced laborers began bringing lawsuits to Japanese courts to ask for an apology and compensation, but all cases failed. In March 2014, survivors took action against both the Japanese government and companies in a Tangshan court.
