A war veteran's fight for compensation from the Japanese is now moving to America, writes David Horne.

Former prisoner-of-war Arthur Titherington, of Church Green, Witney, is heading a groundbreaking legal claim alleging torture and enslavement against a Japanese industrial giant.

The class action on behalf of British PoWs and their families is being fought in California and could result in a multi-million pound compensation payment being ordered against the Tokyo-based Japan Energy Corporation. Former Witney Mayor Mr Titherington, 78, is chairman of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors Association (JLCSA). He has been pressing a claim for compensation for ex-PoWs and their families through the Japanese courts, but so far unsuccessfully.

He said: "Companies like Japan Energy have never had to pay out a penny in compensation. This action is to seek justice for the survivors and for the hundreds who did not make it.

"Japan Energy is directly responsible for systematically torturing hundreds of men and then profiting from their labour, as far as we are concerned. This is perhaps our last chance to bring them to book."

Legislation passed by the US state last year allows victims of slave labour to sue international conglomerates.

Japan Energy, which has 210 subsidiaries and 92 affiliates, is one of the Far East's biggest companies with 1998 sales worth £9 billion across sectors from petrochemicals to pharmaceuticals. A Web site for the corporation lists the Nippon Mining Corporation as a predecessor to today's international conglomerates.

The JLCSA lawsuit centres on the Kinkaseki mine in Taiwan, where 428 British prisoners died digging for copper ore. during the Second World War.

Story date: Monday 21 February

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