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HJM009.........................................................by EDUCATION
WORLD WAR II VETERANS - Stating findings of the Legislature and urging the
United States government to facilitate discussions between all interested
parties relating to compensation for American soldiers who were forced by
the Japanese government to provide labor for the benefit of private
Japanese companies while captured as prisoners of war during World War II.
02/23 House intro - 1st rdg - to printing
02/26 Rpt prt - to Com/HuRes
02/28 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 2nd rdg
03/01 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg
03/02 3rd rdg - ADOPTED - voice vote - to Senate
03/05 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to St Aff
03/08 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 10th Ord
03/09 10th ord - ADOPTED - voice vote
Title apvd - to House
03/12 To enrol
03/13 Rpt enrol - Sp signed
03/14 Pres signed
03/15 To Secretary of State
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ||||
Fifty-sixth Legislature First Regular Session - 2001
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 9
BY EDUCATION COMMITTEE
1 A JOINT MEMORIAL
2 TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS
3 ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION REPRESENTING THE STATE OF
4 IDAHO IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
5 We, your Memorialists, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the
6 State of Idaho assembled in the First Regular Session of the Fifty-sixth Idaho
7 Legislature, do hereby respectfully represent that:
8 WHEREAS, service members of the United States Armed Forces courageously
9 battled Japanese military forces on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines
10 from December 1941 to April 1942; and
11 WHEREAS, many of those American soldiers were taken prisoner of war on
12 April 9, 1942, by Japanese military forces and were ordered to march eighty-
13 five miles from the Bataan peninsula to a prisoner of war camp; and
14 WHEREAS, more than 10,000 American soldiers died as a result of starva-
15 tion, disease and executions by the Japanese military forces while marching
16 from the Bataan peninsula to the prisoner of war camp; and
17 WHEREAS, over 36,000 American soldiers were forced by the Japanese mili-
18 tary forces into prisoner of war camps during World War II, and nearly forty
19 percent of American prisoners of war died in those camps; and
20 WHEREAS, more than 1,600 of the American prisoners of war were taken to
21 Japan and ordered to work in inhumane and torturous conditions for private
22 Japanese companies; and
23 WHEREAS, the American prisoners of war were treated barbarically and
24 denied the most basic human necessities such as food, health care and sanitary
25 living and working quarters as provided under the terms of the Geneva Conven-
26 tion; and
27 WHEREAS, many of the American soldiers who survived the Japanese prisoner
28 of war camps still suffer from poor health due to the conditions of their
29 imprisonment and forced labor;
30 WHEREAS, private Japanese companies benefited from the forced labor of
31 these American soldiers; and
32 WHEREAS, as a matter of justice, these American soldiers should receive
33 compensation from those private Japanese companies benefitting from their
34 forced labor; and
35 WHEREAS, the United States government has neither supported these Ameri-
36 cans in their efforts to seek justice in the courts of the United States nor
37 attempted to engage all parties in settlement discussions; and
38 WHEREAS, by contrast, the United States government has facilitated settle-
39 ment discussions regarding claims by individuals who were forced into slave
40 labor by the Third Reich of Germany during World War II for the benefit of
41 private German businesses; and
42 WHEREAS, Armed Forces Units serving at Bataan during World War II received
43 many heroic citations, including three Presidential Unit Citations and the
44 Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for heroism, yet individual members of
2
1 these units who were taken prisoner of war have been denied the right to seek
2 justice based upon a treaty governing postwar reparations from the Japanese
3 government; and
4 WHEREAS, treaties made by the United States government have denied these
5 American soldiers many basic rights which are impliedly guaranteed in the
6 United States Constitution;
7 WHEREAS, American soldiers held as prisoners of war by the Japanese gov-
8 ernment during World War II received reparations based only on the time held
9 as a prisoner of war and not for the slave labor performed while a prisoner of
10 war; and
11 WHEREAS, the Japanese government's position is that its liability for any
12 compensation payments based upon its World War II improprieties expired in
13 1952.
14 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the First Regular Session
15 of the Fifty-sixth Idaho Legislature, the House of Representatives and the
16 Senate concurring therein, that it is in the interest of justice that the
17 United States, through the Secretary of State or other appropriate officials,
18 facilitate discussions between the interested parties in order to provide
19 redress for the American soldiers who were taken as prisoners of war by the
20 Japanese government during World War II and forced to perform slave labor
21 under inhumane conditions for the benefit of private Japanese companies.
22 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the House of Representa-
23 tives be, and she is hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this
24 Memorial to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Repre-
25 sentatives of Congress, and the congressional delegation representing the
26 State of Idaho in the Congress of the United States.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE RS 11164 The intent of this resolution is to direct to the President of the United States and Congress by expressing the sense of the Idaho Legislature regarding liability of Japanese companies to former prisoners of war used by such companies as slave labor during World War II. Americans captured and interned by the Japanese were forced to work for privately held Japanese companies in severe slave like conditions, with very little food, dangerous work environments, and no medical care. About 37 percent of the 36,000 American prisoners died, including those from Idaho. The Geneva Convention authorizes payment to survivors held under these conditions as compensation for labor and for whatever brutality the companies inflicted during the period of forced labor. The Government of Japan has refused to fully acknowledge the crimes that it committed, as well as those committed by privately held Japanese companies during World War II, and to provide full reparations to the victims of these actions. Be it resolved by the Idaho Legislature that privately owned Japanese companies that used prisoners of war including Idahoans as slave labor during World War II, or the successors of such companies, should: (1) reimburse those former prisoners, or their survivors, for the labor performed for the commercial interest of such companies; and (2) compensate those former prisoners, or their survivors, for whatever brutality the companies inflicted on the prisoners during the period of forced labor. FISCAL IMPACT None. Contacts Name: Rep. Shirley McKague Phone: 332-1000 Name: Rep. Larry Bradford Phone: 332-1000 Name: Rep. Tom Trail Phone: 332-1202 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE HJM 9