Some 700,000 Koreans, 40,000 Chinese and 35,000 Allied POWs performed forced labor for private companies within Japan during the Asia Pacific War. Kyushu coal mines were a wartime center of this injustice and Fukuoka is a major locus of ongoing redress efforts, which the presenter has closely observed. A front-row account of the interaction between community activists in Japan, Korea, China and North America will be provided and key results will be discussed. The Japanese government has been prodded into sending the remains of Korean labor conscripts to South Korea and handing over the long-suppressed records that Seoul needs to fully implement its own compensation program. Lawsuits in Japanese courts stemming from forced labor by Chinese proved partially successful, raising expectations that more Japanese firms may voluntarily settle the especially strong Chinese claims. Amid the controversy surrounding former Prime Minister Aso's admission that there were POWs at Aso Mining, Japan issued new official apologies and is expanding a POW reconciliation program. Fluid networks of independent researchers and Internet-empowered activists continue to influence developments within Japan's changing political landscape. This transnational grassroots activism also faces barriers and limitations.

Mr. Underwood's doctoral research at Kyushu University analyzed the reparations movement for Chinese forced labor in Japan during World War Two, locating it within the global trend toward repairing historical injustices. His articles for The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (www.japanfocus.org) provide the fullest descriptions of forced labor redress activities involving Chinese as well as Korean victims. He played a key role in forcing former Japanese Prime Minister Aso Taro to admit there were Allied POWs at Aso Mining during the war. His Web site is www.williamunderwood.org.

Ambassador John V. Roos offers his informal off-the-record remarks on current and future U.S. - Japan Relations.

On May 27, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated John V. Roos to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Japan. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 7, 2009, and was sworn in on August 16, 2009. Prior to his appointment as ambassador, Mr. Roos served as Chief Executive Officer at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm headquartered in Silicon Valley which is known for its representation of technology, life sciences, and growth companies. Mr. Roos had been a partner at the firm since 1988 and also served in a number of other senior leadership roles including the firm's Board of Directors.

Mr. Roos helped lead the firm during the waves of innovation in Silicon Valley, from the growth of software and communications, to the Internet Age and the emergence of biotechnology, to today's focus on clean technology and renewable energy. He was a leader in cultivating the firm's diversity initiatives. Mr. Roos has been active in local government and served on national political campaigns for President Obama, former Vice President Walter Mondale and Senator Bill Bradley, among others.

Mr. Roos grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Lowell High School in 1973 before attending college at Stanford University, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors and distinction in 1977. He then went on to Stanford Law School, where he was a member of the Stanford Law Review and Order of the Coif, earning his Juris Doctor in 1980.

More than six decades after the end of World War II, the Japanese government has yet to release an estimated ¥200 billion worth of unpaid wages owed to Korean forced laborers who were brought to wartime Japan. Nor has the government disbursed an additional ¥200 billion worth of financial benefits owed to Korean and Taiwanese military servicemen. During the Allied Occupation of Japan, American authorities directed Japanese officials to compensate these Asian victims of the war effort, setting up a custody account for labor conscripts in 1946 and a foreign creditor's account for military conscripts in 1949. However, the outbreak of the Korean War destroyed any chance of monetary compensation, as the U.S. preoccupation over the new cold-war conflict effectively froze up bank accounts relating to Japan's former colonial subjects. Clarifying the historical record of American involvement in this unresolved issue of war compensation can contribute towards resurrecting efforts to reach regional reconciliation between Japan and its neighbors in Northeast Asia.

Matthew Augustine is the 2009-2010 Northeast Asia History Fellow at Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from the History Department at Columbia University and his B.A. from the Politics Department at Princeton University. His research interests include military occupations, especially the U.S. occupations in Japan, Korea, and Okinawa after World War II; transnational migrations and border controls; Japan's colonial empire in the Asia-Pacific; and the history and politics of war reparations in Northeast Asia.

Just how easy (or difficult) is it for North Koreans to watch banned American movies or listen to Korean-language news broadcasts that Pyongyang spends a great deal of time condemning and resources trying to block?  The North Korean border has become increasingly porous, with news reports suggesting that American and South Korean films have become so popular that the North Korean authorities have been forced to issue edicts on the length of men’s hair, for example.  At the same time, several American, South Korean and Japanese radio stations are targeting North Korea through short and medium-wave broadcasts.  A growing number of defectors report having tasted such forbidden fruit before leaving North Korea.  To what extent is banned media undermining the regime’s control of the flow of information?  Do such broadcasts encourage North Koreans to defect?

Peter M. Beck is the 2009-10 Pantech Fellow at Stanford University’s Asia Pacific Research Center.  He also teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. and Ewha Woman's University in Seoul.  He also writes a monthly column for Weekly Chosun and The Korea Herald.  Previously, he was the executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and directed the International Crisis Group’s Northeast Asia Project in Seoul.  He was also the Director of Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute in Washington.  He has published over 100 academic and short articles and testified before Congress.

Two major unresolved issues from World War II in the Pacific are the use of the atomic bomb by the United States, which destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the use of foreign slave labor for war-related production by Japan. Koreans and Allied POWs were among those who were victims of both atrocities. While limited compensation for non-Japanese hibakusha have been won in Japanese courts in recent years, no compensation has been forthcoming for their labor under armed confinement. The American government was responsible for the use of these atomic bombs, but company contractors such as Du Pont profited from their development as well. Just as Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi that profited from foreign forced labor should contribute to a trust fund for compensation, so too should American companies that contributed to the Manhattan Project. Only when U.S. and Japanese companies and governments mutually accept responsibility through such compensation will there be an honest acknowledgement of the real costs of the use of the atomic bombs and slave labor.

David Palmer is Senior Lecturer in American Studies at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Since 2000, his primary focus has been on the history of Japanese workers, especially those in shipbuilding, who experienced World War II and the atomic bombs.
His most recent publications include "The Straits of Dead Souls: One Man's Investigation into the Disappearance of Mitsubishi Hiroshima's Korean Forced Labourers," Japanese Studies, Dec. 2006, and "Korean Hibakusha, Japan's Supreme Court and the International Community: Can the U.S. and Japan Confront Forced Labor and Atomic Bombing?," Japan Focus, Feb. 20, 2008.

Much of the debate over Japan's historical disputes with neighboring countries treat unresolved issues from World War II as an intra-Asian problem. In recent years, however, there is a growing view that the United States can hardly afford to stand outside these disputes, particularly since it was intimately involved in their formation immediately after the war. The U.S. was the undisputed leader of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, which failed to address Japanese war crimes against Asian victims. The U.S. also brokered the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which laid the legal framework to deter Asian victims from filing suits against the Japanese government and corporations for wartime grievances. The United States should address its responsibility in contributing to Japan's "history problem," while playing a constructive role in facilitating historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia.

Professor Gi-Wook Shin is the director of Shorenstein APARC; the Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Chair of Korean Studies; the founding director of the Korean Studies Program; senior fellow at FSI; and professor of sociology at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on areas of social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations. Dr. Shin has served as editor of the Journal of Korean Studies, a premier journal in the field of Korean studies.