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API Advisory Commission Visits S.F. (in Bay Area News) Asian Food Markets in the Bay Area (in Business) Lampo Leong's Forces • Contemplation (in A&E) Reasons to Celebrate (in Opinion) Waiting for an Apology Former POWs blast federal opposition to lawsuits against Japanese companies By Bart Jansen/AP Choking back tears, Frank Bigelow asked Congress why the federal government opposes his lawsuit against the Japanese company he says made him a slave laborer during World War II. Bigelow, a former seaman from Brooksville, Fla., spent two years as a prisoner of war, suffering beatings and illness such as malaria, jaundice and dysentery. Fellow prisoners cut off part of his leg after a rock fell and broke it while he mined for Mitsui and Co. Inc. “What do I think the company owes us? My leg, a couple of years of our lives and at least miner’s wages for what we did,” Bigelow, 78, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 28 (see statement). The federal government says lawsuits like Bigelow’s are prohibited under the 1951 peace treaty between the United States and Japan. California became a magnet for such cases last year when the Legislature enacted a law allowing victims of slave labor to sue multinational corporations. Several pending lawsuits from former World War II prisoners seek compensation from companies including Mitsubishi Corp., Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Nippon Steel Co. and Japan Energy Corp. Last month, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco asked the Justice and State departments for an opinion on one such lawsuit. The agencies, quoting the treaty, said “the Allied Powers waive all reparations claims of the Allied Powers and their nationals rising out of any actions taken by Japan and its nationals.” Ronald Bettauer, deputy legal adviser for the State Department, reiterated to the committee that there is no legal recourse for the victims. “Although we sympathize with the plaintiffs and acknowledge that they suffered great injuries in the service of their country, we are convinced that the treaty precludes these lawsuits and that we have no legal basis upon which to approach Japan and its nationals for additional compensation for war claims,” he said. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., responded that the government should not be able to prevent lawsuits by citizens against private companies. “I think your arguments are ridiculous,” Hatch said. At the hearing, four former prisoners recounted horrific details of the Bataan Death March in April 1942 after Japan overran the Philippines. U.S. forces surrendered and sick and starving soldiers were forced to march 65 miles in the hot sun. Denied food and water, they were beaten—and some were killed—if they fell out of line. “I feel as if I am once again being sacrificed, abandoned not for the war effort as in the past, but for the benefit of Japanese big business,” said Lester Tenney of La Jolla, Calif. “Worse than abandonment, our own government is encouraging the court system to ignore our sacrifices, our dignity and our sense of justice.” Bettauer said the government has long had the power to negotiate settlements to prevent potential lawsuits. “It would be too late now—40 years later—to seek to renegotiate the benefits we received under the peace treaty because of something we insisted upon doing back then,” he said. Hatch asked Bettauer and David Ogden, acting head of the Justice Department’s civil division, to review their interpretation of the treaty and report back to Congress.