Calif. Court Upholds Law Allowing Slave Labor Victims to Sue Japanese Companies
Thursday, January 16, 2003
LOS ANGELES ? A state appeals court Wednesday upheld a California law that allows people who claim they were forced into slave labor during World War II to sue Japanese companies that do business in the state.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected arguments that a 1951 treaty between the United States and Japan pre-empted the 1999 law, and that the law infringed on the federal government's exclusive power over foreign affairs.
"It's a major precedent. It's the first appellate court decision, state or federal, on the Japan wartime slave labor issues," said Barry Fisher, a lawyer for plaintiff Jae Won Jeong.
Jeong, an 80-year-old Korean-American man, is suing the former Onoda Cement Co. and its successor, Taiheiyo Cement Corp., which has a Los Angeles-based subsidiary.
The California law allows people claiming to be wartime forced-labor victims in Europe and Asia to seek redress until 2010 against multinational firms that operate in the state.
Jeong, a Los Angeles resident for 12 years, says he was a student at Tokyo's Hosei University when he was taken away in 1943 and forced to break limestone for Onoda for more than a year without pay.
The federal government opposed the suit, as it has others involving demands for slave-labor reparations involving Japan.
But the appellate court said Jeong is a U.S. citizen who has "a constitutional right of access to the courts of this state in an attempt to redress his individual grievances."
Onoda attorney Douglas Mirell did not return a call for comment.
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