Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Debt still owed WWII POWs

Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 | 4:20 a.m.

Last week, right in the middle of another Middle East mess, the legal hounds from the departments of State and Justice took on the Americans held hostage for 444 days by Iran. Believe it or not, our government attempted to silence their testimony during a court hearing determining how much money they should be awarded for their losses and suffering. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan didn't buy the arguments of the government and allowed the first American victims of terrorism to talk.

There are more than enough good reasons to believe Justice and State were taking this action to please the government of Iran. Why should we silence Americans who were abused and tortured by Iranians? Because we want Iran to join us in our war in Afghanistan isn't a good enough reason to satisfy most Americans.

Which reminds me, languishing someplace in an unfinished appropriations bill in Congress is an amendment, which would help former prisoners of war held by Japan to seek reparations from the companies that used them as slave laborers. This amendment is necessary because Justice and State lawyers have already blocked them in the courts. Secretary of State Colin Powell, now a diplomat and not a soldier, said that the former prisoners' grievances had been dealt with 50 years ago. Truthfully, they were sold down the river like slaves of the past by diplomats who wanted to make Japan whole, and then we could all forget about World War II.

Our government doesn't want to admit that it did a sloppy job distributing $90 million it seized in Japanese assets following the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Of that amount only $20 million was used to settle the claims of POWs and civilian internees. The former soldiers can't believe that for each day of imprisonment they only received $1 for rations when released from captivity. I'll never forget the horrifying stories of POW Maurice Mazer, who was a slave in the copper mines of Mitsubishi. Does Mitsubishi sound familiar? There are several other familiar names that can be added to the list of using Americans as slave laborers during World War II.

Several experts on international law and the Geneva Convention, including Dr. John P. Humphrey, former director of Human Rights Division of the U.N. (1948-68) and Dr. Gustave Gingras, in 1992 sided with the POWs. They said that governments cannot forfeit the rights of its citizens where violations of human rights are involved. It's obvious that our own government doesn't believe in their argument for justice and decency.

These cases remind me of the brutal physical and mental treatment WWI veterans received when they marched on Washington, D.C., for the bonus they were promised. It was several years after that war and they were no longer needed to protect the country. This national disgrace happened during one of those periods of peace the world experiences between wars.

Today there is hope that the American POWs used by Japan as slaves will get some help from Congress. Don't be too sure justice will be done because every angle will be used to kill the amendment. It's an old game in Congress to vote for an amendment to a bill knowing it will be ripped out in a conference committee. "Oh, I supported the amendment but it was taken out in a conference committee of the House and Senate," they tell voters. With only a few thousand victims left alive, killing the amendment will result in no political pain. What every American should hope is that decency replaces diplomacy and politics when our representatives in Washington vote.

Personally, I don't want to hear it has been killed by a faceless conference committee. We should expect Sens. Reid and Ensign and Reps. Berkley and Gibbons to make their voices heard loud and clear. Decency should rule the day as we call upon more young men and women to face our enemies.