Amerika dismisses World War II slave-labor claims

On September 21, an Amerikan federal court dismissed lawsuits 
filed by former Amerikan prisoners of war who were forced to work 
as slaves for Japanese companies during World War II. The 
defendants included Mitsubishi, Nippon Steel, and Mitsui and Co. 
Many prisoners died in the brutal work camps. Those who survived 
often lost more than half their body weight.(1)

The Amerikan judge dismissed the case because the peace treaty 
signed by Japan and Amerika settled the issue of reparations "once 
and for all." It explicitly waived any reparations by former 
soldiers or prisoners.

Despite all of its anti-fascist rhetoric, the Amerikan government 
cut deals like this to win the support of fascists from the 
defeated Axis countries. The Amerikans gave military officials in 
charge of Japan's grisly humyn experimentation program clemency in 
return for the experiments' results. Nazi war criminals formed the 
backbone of the CIA's anti-Soviet spy operations.(2) The Amerikans 
needed these reactionaries' help to maintain their hegemony and 
struggle against communism. 

The deals Amerika cut with the fascist powers over 50 years ago 
still have implications. In Japan, for example, neo-fascists are 
pushing to rewrite history textbooks. Schoolbooks only recently 
acknowledged Japanese war crimes, such as the rape and enslavement 
of so-called comfort women or the Nanking massacre. Over 300,000 
people were killed when the Japanese occupied that Chinese city in 
1937. New textbooks omit references to the Nanking massacre and 
use the word "advance" to refer to the Japanese invasions of China 
and other Asian countries.(3)

The rise of neo-fascists in Japan and Germany is a result of the 
Amerikan imperialists' inability to strike while the iron was hot 
and wipe out fascism once and for all. As soos as the fascist 
powers were no longer a threat to the Amerikan hegemony, the 
Amerikans allied with them against their common class enemies: The 
socialist bloc and the advancing struggles for colonial 
liberation. 

The scourge of war will exist as long as imperialism. The 
imperialists coddle all sorts of reactionaries and butchers, 
because they might need them someday to defend their rule. This 
even affects the imperialist-country petty bourgeoisie, as we can 
see in the judge's decision to dismiss prisoners' claim to 
reparations. Not only do the slavedrivers go unpunished, but the 
prisoners' children and grandchildren have to fight in predatory 
and pointless wars sparked by the imperialists.

Notes.

1. "WWII forced labor claims dismissed," Asiaweek 28 Sep 2000

2. Mark Zepezauer, ITAL The CIA's Greatest Hits END, Odonian 
Press, 1994

3. "Japanese accused of whitewashing history," Asiaweek 28 Sep 
2000