British POW's son fights for apology from Japanese PM
The son of a Royal Navy stoker forced to work in a coal mine owned by the family of the Japanese prime minister Taro Aso has begun a one-man campaign to secure an apology and compensation for his father's suffering.
James McAnulty, 62, from Wishaw in Lanarkshire, told The Daily Telegraph that his father, Patrick James McAnulty, never fully recovered from more than three years of captivity in Japan. He died in 1971.
Until January, Mr Aso had steadfastly refused to confirm that his company had employed slave labourers during the Second World War. But then new evidence unearthed by opposition politicians in the archives of the health and welfare ministry proved that 101 British, 197 Australian and two Dutch prisoners were held at the mine, along with several thousand Korean and Chinese forced labourers. Historians say the mines were notorious for their brutal treatment of prisoners.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
James McAnulty, 62, from Wishaw in Lanarkshire, told The Daily Telegraph that his father, Patrick James McAnulty, never fully recovered from more than three years of captivity in Japan. He died in 1971.
Until January, Mr Aso had steadfastly refused to confirm that his company had employed slave labourers during the Second World War. But then new evidence unearthed by opposition politicians in the archives of the health and welfare ministry proved that 101 British, 197 Australian and two Dutch prisoners were held at the mine, along with several thousand Korean and Chinese forced labourers. Historians say the mines were notorious for their brutal treatment of prisoners.