Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 11:02 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Most people know what happened at Pearl Harbor 60 years ago today.
But fewer know what happened the next day, when the Japanese began attacking the Philippines and eventually took U.S. soldiers stationed there as prisoners of war.
Many of those soldiers, including the husband of Las Vegas resident Anna M. Bressi, 78, were used as slave labor for Japanese corporations desperate for manpower.
Workers who survived death marches and "hell ships" after capture often ended up toiling for Japanese companies in horrid conditions. They were given little food or medicine to treat festering diseases.
Arthur Bressi, who survived the war and died on Veterans Day in 1989, was captured on the island of Corregidor in 1942 and held captive 39 1/2 months, his widow said. He was forced to work for a steel company, she said. Among his jobs: loading ore into rail cars.
"He used to say it was backbreaking," Anna M. Bressi said. "He, like all those other fellows -- they deserved something for all that work."
Meager efforts were made after the war to pay POWs. The U.S. government gave many of them $1 a day, including Arthur Bressi.
Now roughly three dozen POWs are attempting to sue the companies that nearly worked them to death, according to Justice for Veterans, a Washington advocacy group.
But a number of them face an unlikely foe in court: the U.S. government.
The State and Justice Departments have objected to the lawsuits, arguing on the side of Japanese companies that include Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. Inc., which have U.S. ties. The departments said a 1951 peace treaty with Japan essentially waived all future claims for restitution made by POWs, although Japan has settled claims with POWs of other nations with similar treaties.
Congress got involved two years ago, and many lawmakers, including Nevada House members, support legislation that paves the way for lawsuits to be heard.
"These World War II heroes sacrificed life and limb fighting for our freedom," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said this summer. "They deserve their day in court."
But the House this year never acted on a bill first introduced in March by Rohrabacher and Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif. The legislation stalled despite support from nearly half the House -- 215 co-signers including Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.
In another effort, both the House and Senate voted to attach an amendment to a budget-setting bill for the Commerce, Justice and State departments. The amendment specifically prohibited the State Department from blocking, or even testifying in POW lawsuits.
But the measure faced strong opposition from the Bush administration, which backs the 1951 treaty. Administration officials and some lawmakers also were concerned that the legislation came at an awkward time when Japan has agreed to help the United States in its war on terrorism.
In the end, lawmakers said it was a Senate rule technicality that forced them to strip the amendment from the budget bill. Bush signed it last month without the POW amendment.
"It's a betrayal and an injustice on every level," said Elisabeth Rutledge, a spokeswoman for Justice for Veterans. "But they (POWs) have been fighting for so long that they are not going to give up."
Still, it's not clear how many slave-labor POWs remain nationwide, and observers agree their numbers are rapidly dwindling.
Arthur Bressi's daughter, Barbara Bressi-Donohue, 52, is active on veterans issues, as her father was. He would have joined the legal efforts of the former POWs, she said.
Arthur Bressi, who was beaten by Japanese captors, was haunted by nightmares of his experiences as a hard-labor prisoner, his daughter said. He was irked that U.S. soldiers held captive by Japan got no compensation even as Japanese-Americans held in U.S. internment camps were given restitution, she said.
Barbara Bressi and her mother believe Arthur Bressi died an early death at 69 in part because of his time as a POW.
"I would love to be able to present Congress with the stories of these POWs," Barbara Bressi said.
"They're all heroes. Why Congress is dragging their feet, I don't know. The government is supposed to protect our rights."
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