US-Japan Dialogue on POWs

Originally published Friday, August 14, 2009 at 12:13 AM

Japanese to invite U.S. POWs of Bataan march

The Japanese government has decided to invite to Japan next year former U.S. prisoners of war who survived the Bataan Death March.

By the Yomiuri Shimbun

TOKYO — The Japanese government has decided to invite to Japan next year former U.S. prisoners of war who survived the Bataan Death March.

It will be the first time the government has officially invited U.S. POWs to Japan.

The Bataan Death March took place on the Bataan Peninsula of Luzon Island in the Philippines. In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army forced approximately 72,000 U.S. and Philippine POWs to march about 60 miles in scorching heat.

Estimates of the death count from the march range from 11,000 men to 54,000.

The Bataan Death March is considered to be representative of Japan's war crimes during World War II. Lt. Gen. Masaharu Honma, commander of the 14th Area Army, was convicted by a military court in Manila after the war and executed.

The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor veterans association disbanded this year because of the advancing age of its members. Japan's ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, attended its disbandment ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in May.

"We extend a heartfelt apology for our country having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people," Fujisaki said, "including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences in the Bataan Peninsula, in Corregidor Island in the Philippines and other places." It was the first time the Japanese government had made a direct apology to former U.S. captives.

The plan to invite former U.S. POWs began after Fujisaki's apology. The Japanese government plans to implement it next year, inviting former POWs and their descendants. Several hundred people are expected to be invited.

Some Japanese have criticized the government's plan, pointing out that the U.S. government has not apologized to those who suffered from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the air raids conducted during World War II.

"If the government invites U.S. POWs, then it should ask the U.S. government to apologize to the victims of the atomic bombings and the air raids," said Terumi Tanaka, secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization.