Experts said Chinese laborers coerced to work in Japan during the
World War II were far in excess of 40,000, contradicting claims
made in a highly-publicized list last week.
They also dismissed claims that the document was the first time the
number had been "revealed to the public."
Experts believe the real number far exceeds 40,000 even though the
list gave the number, names and birthplaces of laborers in
detail.
Li
Zongyuan, a scholar in the field, said the list was made by the
Foreign Affairs Department of Japan in 1946 after Japan lost the
war.
The department collected figures sent by 135 workshops under 55
enterprises that used Chinese laborers and wrote the report, but
the report was not publicized until some Japanese found it in June
1964.
"Quite a few scholars conducting research in the same field as I do
saw this document long ago," he said.
"We found this document does not reflect the true situation at that
time."
Earlier last week, some Chinese media reported that the list and
related materials donated by Japanese friends in December revealed
for the first time that 38,935 Chinese laborers - most of them in
their 20s - were taken by force to work as coolies in Japan's 135
mines from April to November 1943 and March 1944 to May 1945.
Li
added: "We should not draw any conclusions on the exact figure
before we have all the facts."
Some survivors among the laborers did not even find their names on
this list, and this proves it cannot be accurate, said Li who is
currently immersed in a two-year research project with Japanese
scholars.
Many enterprises failed to give the right number by only counting
the numbers of the dead and even missing some names on purpose.
Those who died on the way from China to Japan were often
disregarded, he said.
The Japanese built large concentration camps in North China from
1943 to 1945, where Chinese laborers stayed before being sent to
Japan to produce wartime materials to realize its expansion
ambitions.
Li
talked to a survivor who successfully fled from a concentration
camp in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei Province. He
was told almost 20 to 30 Chinese died every day in his camp before
being sent to Japan to work.
And this death rate was possibly even higher during the 169
transportation trips made between China and Japan, when the living
conditions on board the ships were miserable.
(China Daily January
14, 2002)