Unjust Enrichment [Hardcover]

Linda Goetz Holmes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

During World War II, 32,260 Americans were held as prisoners of war of the Japanese. Thousands were shipped to do forced labor in the factories, shipyards, and mines of Japan-at the specific request of major Japanese companies. For more than fifty years, this story has gone untold-until now. Combining investigative research, personal interviews with more than 400 ex-POWs, excerpts from POW diaries, and samples of the more than 300 recently declassified documents, Pacific War historian Linda Goetz Holmes reveals the brutal and exploitative practices of Japanese companies during World War II. Her research forms the basis of a landmark class-action lawsuit against five of the Japanese companies filed on behalf of 500 former POWs in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on September 13, 1999.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In September 1999, some 500 American WWII veterans filed suit against five Japanese corporations (including Mitsubishi and Kawasaki), seeking reparation for having been used as slave laborers during the war. According to the plaintiffs, these corporations built their postwar success on a foundation of American forced labor. The companies say they have been wrongly targeted, because the modern conglomerates have no relation to the wartime entities accused of these practices, prohibited now as then under the rules of the Geneva Convention. Holmes (4,000 Bowls of Rice), a respected historian and researcher who is part of a presidential panel working to declassify the records of Nazi war crimes, weighs in heavily on the side of the former American POWs. Using recently declassified documents, Holmes bolsters the vets' claims. (One formerly top secret Japanese cable read, "Due to a serious shortage of labor power in Japan, the use of the white POW is earnestly desired.") But the most emotionally charged evidence comes from the former POWs themselves. In interview after interview, Holmes chronicles the abuse of American captives, whose lingering medical and emotional problems are compounded by the belief that their suffering has been minimized by a postwar culture more moved by the plight of other groups of war victims. (Feb. 19) Forecast: A front-page New York Times article on October 2, 2000, broke news of the case on a national level. This book provides a foundation for further media coverage, and should be widely cited. Meanwhile, buffs and vets will find out about the book via newsgroups and the like.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The opening battles of World War II brought the Japanese a significant number of American prisoners of war, a prize composed of some 26,000 captured military and 14,000 interned civilians. For the most part, these prisoners were treated badly, and a disproportionate number died or suffered lifelong disabilities. This is scarcely news. Holmes claims to bring to the table newly released information about the roles of the zaibatsus, the great industrial combines, in the use of forced labor. She also has located information relating to the State Department decision not to prosecute the companies or their leaders after the war, although numerous camp commandants and guards were treated as war criminals. In contrast to recent payments by various European corporations, notes Holmes, no compensation has been paid by Japanese companies. She asserts but does not convincingly prove that many successful Japanese companies, such as Mitsubishi, succeeded in the postwar era because of the unreasonable profits they reaped by using slave labor, a large part of which was American. Given the scale of the war, the immense destruction on the home islands, and the generally low productivity of forced labor, it is difficult to see this one factor as paramount in the rebuilding of Japanese industrial strength. Libraries collecting deeply in Japanese-American relations and World War II history may be interested. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811718441
• ISBN-13: 978-0811718448
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,478,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Upon the heads of your grandfathers, February 1, 2001

By 

Mark B. Golden (DELRAY BEACH, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unjust Enrichment (Hardcover)

I always knew of the atrocities set upon the world by the Nazis in WWll. I knew there were prisoners of war in the Pacific. I did not know that 9 out of every 10 prisoners of war who died in captivity, died due to Japanese hands. I did not know that "white" prisoners of war were sold into slave labor to the major corporations in Japan. I now know that the companies we Americans helped to rebuild after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, have yet to apologize to us for the treatment the prisoners received. I read. I learned. I learned that until apologies come forth, I will not support Japanese companies in any way. While it is true that the people running the companies now were probably not even born yet, it would honor the memories of their ancestors, if an apology came forth. The honor would come back with honesty, and maybe their grandfathers' souls can rest.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that had to be told, April 22, 2001

By 

Roderick C. Hall (London, England United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unjust Enrichment (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating book about a chapter of our WW II experience that should have been told before now. Our prisoners in the Pacific were inhumanely treated, and we owe it to them to hear how they suffered, and to help them get compensation. German companies are coming forward to pay for the slave labor they used during WW II. It is about time that our men in the Pacific also received compensation for their work and suffering.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Japan should NEVER have been allowed to import products to the US, November 5, 2009

By 

M. "Book Lover" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unjust Enrichment (Hardcover)

Japan should never have been allowed to import their products into the US marketplace after WWII. This has caused nothing but havoc for American manufacturing, and it is a disgrace and betrayal to all those WWII veterans. If our government doesn't start treating its veterans better, they will have no one to fight their wars in the future. These soldiers give their lives to be betrayed over and over again after the war is over. It's completely unjust and disgusting!