Stonewalled Morally

Visiting former Aso Mining slave laborer and Australian POW Joe Coombs found no contrition at Aso Lafarge Cement, the successor company of Aso Mining. He was also refused a meeting with the Prime Minister whose family owned the company.

Reports filtering back say that the Mr. Coombs party was met at Aso Lafarge by a public affairs representative who insisted that Aso Mining no longer exists, that the current company is not connectd to this company, and that the current company has no record of using slave labor.

"There is no good pleading ignorance of the fact when he knows perfectly well that it did exist," responded the spry 88-year old.

"The slave labour and the POWs were here and did exist and he [Prime Minister Aso] needs to morally apologise on behalf of the people of Japan."

An account of the visit in English and Mr. Coombs' disappointment can be found HERE.
A video account on Australian TV can be found HERE.

One can only wonder if France's Lafarge, the world's largest building materials coglomerate, know what it purchased when it bought into a joint venture with Aso Cement in 2001. Aso's younger brother, Yutaka, is president of the new company. In December 2005, the French Ambassador in Tokyo awarded Yutaka Aso the Legion d'Honneur at a champagne reception. Guest of honour was his brother, then-Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

In contrast, this year, Lafarge has taken the lead in restoring Camp des Milles. This former tile factory was the main French internment, transit and deportation camp in the South East of France, and is the only French camp that is still intact. Some 10,000 people transited there, among whom 2,500 Jewish men, women and children deported to Auschwitz.

The Lafarge press release notes: "Lafarge's involvement with the 'Remembering the Camp des Milles' Association, which is piloting the this operation, illustrates the Group's commitment to citizen education. Very attached to the promotion of local cultures and remembrance of the past Lafarge has taken part in a number of emblematic projects, at locations neighboring its operational sites."

For a good summary of Foreign Minister Aso's past denials of his family's use of POW slave labor see this 2006 New Matilda article by Chris Reed, Australian War Slaves. Mr. Aso, as noted previously, admitted to the use of POW labor only in January of this year.