No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
As a recently retired sociology professor in the United States, Ivy Lee became actively involved with global efforts to redress Japanese war crimes a few years before Kajima Co.'s controversial settlement in 2000 with Chinese forced laborers from the notorious Hanaoka worksite. Kajima's approach to resolving the Hanaoka injustice raised serious doubts about its corporate sincerity, but the professional honesty and good faith of Japanese lawyers who provided pro bono representation for the Chinese victims were also called into question by some critics in ways that suggested the need for careful investigation.
Chinese version of this article is also available: http://admin.japanfocus.org/data/Ivy_Lee_Chinese_translation.pdf
[1] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqcj/zxqxb/2010-04-29/content_236115.html, accessed 4/29/2010
[2] http://bjyouth.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=65155321, accessed 4/29/2010
[6] Ibid.
[7] http://newnews.ca/?action-viewnews-itemid-51076, http://www.anpopo.com/show-35637-1.html, accessed 4/30/2010
On April 26, 2010, in a press release sent to the Chinese media in Canada, Canada ALPHA announced that together with Wai Ming Charitable Foundation Fund, Ltd. of Hong Kong, they will solicit money from overseas ethnic Chinese to found a fund in support of Chinese forced laborers to continue their struggle for obtaining historical justice. In addition, Canada ALPHA and Wai Ming will each contribute 350,000 RMB (at 6.8 RMB = 1 USD, equivalent to $51,470 each) toward the founding of this fund. The five original plaintiffs and two other CFLs who have indicated they will reject the settlement, will receive 50,000 RMB, the same amount as those who settled, from this fund.
[8] http://news.163.com/10/0428/10/65BOH53I000146BD.html, accessed 4/30/2010
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] http://gcontent.nddaily.com/3/40/340a39045c40d50d/Blog/6d7/ca5653.html, accessed 5/1/2010
[12] Ibid.
[13] The Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WW II in Asia announced that the organization, together with concerned individuals in China, founded a Subsidy to Victims Rejecting Kajima's Hanaoka Settlement Fund in December of 2004. Money had already been raised from GA affiliates, with British Columbia chapter of Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WW II in Asia, British Columbia (BC ALPHA), and Toronto ALPHA contributing 25,000 RMB each, a member of another San Francisco GA affiliate contributing 100,000 RMB and various individuals in China contributing a total of 6,200 RMB. The Fund would solicit donations from all overseas ethnic Chinese toward the goal of a fund total of 225,000 RMB. It started its first distribution toward the end of 2004 of 25,000 RMB (at 8.28 RMB = 1 USD on December 15, 2004, equivalent to $3,048) to each Hanaoka victim who rejected the settlement.
[14] http://news.sohu.com/20091103/n267921800.shtml, accessed 5/1/2010. The three non-negotiable demands are described by Prof. Liu Bao Chen, a researcher at the Forced Labor Research Center, Hebei University, who was first approached by Chinese residing in Japan to locate the Hanaoka survivors and who participated throughout the whole course of the Yasuno litigation and negotiations.
[15] http://big5.china.com.cn/international/txt/2009-11/03/content_18819279_2.htm, accessed 5/27/2010
[18] http://www.longevitys.com/n489992c26.aspx, accessed 4/28/2010
[19] Kang Jian, Arimitsu Ken and William Underwood, “Assessing the Nishimatsu Corporate Approach to Redressing Chinese Forced Labor in Wartime Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, 47-1-09, November 23, 2009;
[21] http://www.ccvic.com/guoji/redianpinglun/20100427/144264.shtml, accessed 4/29/2010
[22] http://www.chinaqll.com/Html/qyjm/14_187.htm, accessed 4/20/2010
[23] http://www.china918.cn/news/suopei/xisonghj/2010/0510/497.html, accessed 5/14/2010
[24] http://www.stopracism.ca/content/nishimatsu-construction-co-ltd-slave-labour-settlement, accessed 4/30/2010
[26] Ibid.
[27] Lin Yin, “The Legal Meaning of the Hanaoka Compensation Case Settlement and Related Questions,” in Abduction, Litigation, and Settlement, edited by Luo Wei-Long (Academy Press, China, 2002) 164-165
[28] http://www.china918.cn/news/suopei/xisonghj/2010/0513/498.html, accessed 5/15/2010
[31] http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2535/t315036.htm, accessed 5/26/2010. Liu Jianchao's statement clearly implies China has not given up the individual citizens' right to claim although it has renounced war reparations between the two states in the Joint Communique.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Kang Jian et al, (November 23, 2009)
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid.
[36] http://www.iwanami.co.jp/jpworld/text/hanaoka02.html, accessed 5/25/2010
[37] http://www.66law.cn/archive/news/2010-05-10/38678_1.aspx, accessed 5/24/2010
[38] http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=750, accessed 5/2/2010
[39] Kang Jian et al, (November 23, 2009)
[40] Gideon Taylor, “Where Morality Meets Money,” in Holocaust Restitution edited by Michael Bazyler and Roger Alford (New York: New York University Press, 2006) 163-169
[41] http://www.claimscon.org/?url=history, accessed 5/27/2010
[42] Gideon Taylor (2006), 163-169
[43] Michael Bazyler, “Japan Should Follow the International Trend and Face Its History of World War II Forced Labor” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 5-3-09, January 29, 2009. http://www.japanfocus.org/-Michael-Bazyler/3030
[44] Michael Bazyler, Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in American's Courts (NY: New York University Press, 2003), 83
[45] Ibid., 61
[46] Roger Cohen, “German Companies Set Up Fund for Slave Laborers under Nazis.” New York Times, February 17, 1999, A1. Quoted in Bazyler (2003) 83
[47] Michael Bazyler (November 23, 2003), 83-88
[48] Ibid., 79-83
[49] Ibid., 89-92
[50] Roger Witten, “How Swiss Banks and German Companies Came to Terms with the Wrenching Legacies of the Holocaust and World War II,” Holocaust Restitution edited by Michael Bazyler and Roger Alford (NY“:New York University Press, 2006) 88
[53] Michael Bazyler (2003), 81
[54] Ibid., 101-105
[55] Gideon Taylor (2006), 166
[56] http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2010-04/26/c_1257467.htm, accessed 5/24/2010
[61] Ibid.
[62] http://www.jca.apc.org/hanaokajiken/eng%20provisions.htm, accessed 5/1/2010
[64] http://www.china918.cn/news/suopei/2009/1023/322.html, accessed 5/1/2010
[65] http://www.jca.apc.org/hanaokajiken/eng%20provisions.htm
[66] Ibid.
[68] Miki Y. Ishikida, Toward Peace: War Responsibility, Postwar Compensation, and Peace Movements and Education in Japan (NE: Center for US-Japan Comparative Social Studies, 2005) 43
[69] http://www.hr-china.org/human/2010-05/10/content_3504418.htm, accessed 5/24/2010
[70] http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/news/releases/20100217809-news, accessed 5/30/2010
[71] http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2535/t315036.htm
On occasions when queried about the Chinese forced labor issue, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has spoken out and asked Japan to face squarely its unresolved war legacy. For example, when responding to the Japan Supreme Court's 2007 ruling, the Ministry spokesperson said on April 29, 2007, “The conscription of the forced and enslaved labour is a grave crime committed by Japanese militarism against the Chinese people. It is also an existing major human rights issue yet to be properly addressed. China has requested Japan to properly handle relevant issues in an attitude responsible for history.”
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2535/t628660.htm
The same words were repeated again on November 23, 2009, when the spokesperson was asked about another verdict on Chinese forced labor at Sakata port, Yamagata prefecture.
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/2511/t335373.htm
The Ministry has also remarked on Japan's other unresolved war legacies. Regarding the issue of Comfort Women, for example, the Ministry spokesperson said on June 30, 2007, “The position of China on the “comfort women “issue is consistent and clear-cut. The conscription of “comfort women “is one of the grave crimes committed by the Japanese militarism against the people of the invaded countries including China during the Second World War. We request the Japanese government to listen to the just appeal of the international community, properly and earnestly handle the issue left over from history in an attitude responsible for history.”
[72] http://www.japanfocus.org/-Arimitsu-Ken/3256
Ken Arimitsu wrote in the companion piece in Kang Jian et al., (November 23, 2009), that “Clarifying Japan's national responsibility and securing the necessary redress funding will be a sure step towards an age of trust and peace-building.”
http://news.163.com/10/0428/10/65BOH53I000146BD.html
Recognizing that the path to litigation is closed, Deng Jianguo, the head of the Attorneys Association for Forced Labor Issues is quoted as having remarked “We feel it is time for the Japanese Government to speak up,” noting the only way to resolve the problem now is through politics.
You have
Access
Open access