"Sixty years! I've spent nearly six decades waiting for my pay from
the Japanese," Ye Yongcai, a 76-year-old man told Xinhua.
A
Japanese court on April 27 ordered the Mistui Mining Co. to pay
1.28 million US dollars in damages to 15 Chinese men forcibly taken
to Japan to toil in the company's coal mines during World War II.
Ye was one of them.
"The compensation cannot erase the tortures and hardship we
endured," said Ye with shaking lips. He was taken by the Japanese
company in the winter of 1943 when he was only 16 years old and was
forced to work in its mine.
Historical data shows that about 39,000 Chinese were transported to
Japan by the Japanese invaders during World War II. They were
locked in the hulls of ships and transported to Japan for hard
labour in factories and mines for no pay as Japan tried to keep its
war machine going.
"In the Japanese mine, I even wanted to commit suicide for the work
was too hard and I was so tired," said Ye. He told Xinhua that
after being locked up at the mine sites, they were numbered and
sent to excavate coal.
In
the hot tunnels filled with coal dust and unbearable noise, Ye and
his compatriots were forced to load and unload coal without rest,
suffering abuse and beatings from their supervisors.
"Look at this scar, it was made by a Japanese saw," Ye said,
indicating a 2-inch scar on his forehead. He explained that his
work began from 8 o'clock on the morning to six o'clock in the
evening with a lunch in the mine, and then the next shift would
take over.
Once a Japanese supervisor asked him to lift a log, which was too
heavy for him. He was unable to lift it and the supervisor nicked
his forehead with a saw. The foul working air and arduous physical
labor made the workers prone to catching various diseases. Ye noted
that they could not even cope with common flu or
food-poisoning.
Worst of all was the enduring torture of hunger, and all he could
think about was food. He could hardly even remember his relatives
during that period.
Most slave laborers were so weak that they could not escape and
fight against the Japanese.
"It was hard for me to imagine that I could return to my hometown
one day if Japan was not defeated," said Ye.
He
was rescued in August 1945 without receiving any pay for his labor
in the mines.
He
tried hard in the six decades since to seek compensation from the
Japanese coal mine.
"The compensation from the Japanese government is just a matter of
time, but it comes too late," sighed Ye.
(Xinhua News
Agency May 6, 2002)