While the Japanese government have apologized to our World War II POW's, never before has their been an apology issued for the slavery they endured; until now.

Mitsubishi Materials, without the involvement of the Japanese government, has stepped forward in what is being called a "landmark" step in offering a sincere apology to United States veterans who were forced into slavery as POW's during World War II. The Japanese government have issued apologies, but never before has a major Japanese company who used POW's for slavery, apologized for doing so.

Although the Mitsubishi Materials division here in the United States say they have no knowledge of the "closed door" event to be held at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, Mitsubishi Materials in Japan has in fact said that an apology will be offered by senior executive director, Hikaru Kimura. 

Masato Otaka, a spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C. has confirmed and validated the apology will take place to hopefully bring some sort of closure to families of surviving POW's who were held and forced into slavery.

It's believed that out of the 12,000 POW's who were forced into slavery, about 900 of them worked for Mitsubishi Materials at some point in either mines or military/industrial factories. Out of those 900, only two living POW's could be found and only one of them is still fit enough to make the journey to California to hear the apology in person.

94-year-old James Murphy, who lives in California, said that after surviving the Bataan Death March, was forced to work at a copper mine with no food, medicine, clothes or sanitation of any kind. The other known survivor, 94-year-old is Lester Tenney, will not be able to make the trip to Los Angeles and said he will not comment on the apology until he actually hears it.

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