The U.S. House of Representatives has adopted a nonbinding resolution urging the president to help negotiate damages lawsuits filed by former U.S. prisoners of war against Japanese firms over forced labor during World War II, congressional officials said Monday.
Adopted unanimously, the resolution calls for the administration to make efforts to open a dialogue between the plaintiffs and the Japanese companies to settle the lawsuits.
The resolution states it is in the interest of "justice and fairness" that the United States facilitate discussions to resolve all issues between former U.S. POWs "forced into slave labor for the benefit of Japanese companies during World War II and the private Japanese companies who profited from their slave labor."
The Senate adopted a similar resolution in November.
Kenneth Bargmann, a former POW, said in a statement, "I'm sure all veterans will join me in praising the House and Senate's great efforts and leadership on behalf of these former slave laborers."
Moves to seek reparations from Japanese firms over wartime use of forced labor were prompted by the July 1999 passage of a California statute allowing former POWs held by Nazi Germany, Japan and their allies to file World War II damages suits until 2010.