Mitsubishi apologizes to WWII POW’s for forced labor (9 images)

Yukio Okamoto, Outside Board Member of Mitsubishi Materials and former Special Advisor to Japan's Prime Minister (L) and Hikaru Kimura, Senior Executive Officer Mitsubishi Materials (2nd-L) offer an apology to 94-year-old WWII U.S. prisoner of war James Murphy (R) at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on July 19, 2015. Some 12,000 American WWII prisoners were shipped to Japan and forced to work at more than 50 sites to support imperial Japan's war effort, and about 10 percent died, according to Kinue Tokudome, director of the U.S.-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort for companies to apologize. Listening (3rd-L) is Rabbi Abraham Cooper.. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

Hikaru Kimura, Senior Executive Officer Mitsubishi Materials (3rd-L) offers an apology to 94-year-old WWII U.S. prisoner of war James Murphy (R)) at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on July 19, 2015. Some 12,000 American WWII prisoners were shipped to Japan and forced to work at more than 50 sites to support imperial Japan's war effort, and about 10 percent died, according to Kinue Tokudome, director of the U.S.-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort for companies to apologize. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

James Murphy, WWII American POW and forced laborer of Santa Maria, California listens to an apology given by Hikaru Kimura, Senior Executive Officer Mitsubishi Material at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on July 19, 2015. Some 12,000 American WWII prisoners were shipped to Japan and forced to work at more than 50 sites to support imperial Japan's war effort, and about 10 percent died, according to Kinue Tokudome, director of the U.S.-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort for companies to apologize. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

Yukio Okamoto, Outside Board Member of Mitsubishi Materials and former Special Advisor to Japan's Prime Minister (L) and Hikaru Kimura, Senior Executive Officer Mitsubishi Materials (C) offer an apology as they hold hands with 94-year-old WWII U.S. prisoner of war James Murphy (R) at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on July 19, 2015. Some 12,000 American WWII prisoners were shipped to Japan and forced to work at more than 50 sites to support imperial Japan's war effort, and about 10 percent died, according to Kinue Tokudome, director of the U.S.-Japan Dialogue on POWs, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort for companies to apologize. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI