Americans Enslaved in Japan During WWII

May 25 -- Les Tenney and Mo Mazer were tortured and starved while working as slaves in Japanese mines during World War II.

The men are just two of some 20,000 American GIs taken prisoner in the Pacific and put to work as slave laborers for Japanese companies. Their plight, though a well-established historical fact, has been largely forgotten.

"This issue is about companies that put us into servitude, took advantage of us, didn't feed us, didn't give us medical care, didn't pay us, and now they're trying to deny all responsibility," says Tenney, now 80 and living in Phoenix.

Tenney and Mazer contend the companies that forced them into hard labor are connected to the giant Mitsubishi and Mitsui corporations, both of which have been named in lawsuits brought by the veterans.

Adding to the veterans' frustration, they say the U.S. government has taken the side of the Japanese companies, arguing that the peace treaty with Japan pre-emptively settled all such suits.

Death March

Tenney was stationed in the Philippines when he found himself outnumbered and was ordered to surrender to the Japanese. He and thousands of American and Filipino prisoners were herded together for what became known as the Bataan Death March. A third of the American prisoners died during the march, and Tenney says he personally witnessed the beheading of a fellow soldier.

He and the other survivors were shipped to Japan. He says they were turned over to the Mitsui Mining Co. as slaves, to work in a crumbling coal mine.

"The Japanese soldiers would take us from our camp and walk us from our camp to the coal mine and then they would … turn us over to the civilians — to the Mitsui people," says Tenney.

He says the Mitsui employees treated the Americans even worse than the Japanese soldiers did, forcing them to work on meager rations and constantly beating them. On one occasion, Tenney says, a Mitsui worker struck him with a heavy steel chain, ripping through his cheek and knocking out his teeth.