A group of World War II survivors in U.S. territory Guam announced Monday they will sue the federal government for reparations for suffering endured more than 70 years ago.
Local individuals, including lawyers and politicians, launched the nonprofit organization Guam World World II Reparations Advocates Inc. to fight for compensation they believe the survivors still deserve.
“We really feel that this is injustice that has not been made right,” former U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Juan Carlos Benitez said Monday during a press conference at an International House of Pancakes in Tamuning, Guam.
The American island was taken by the Japanese army in WWII and was the the site of the Battle of Guam, an important stepping stone in the Pacific theatre of the war, in which America rolled back Japan’s gains. During the occupation, tens of thousands of Guamanians suffered under Japanese rule which, counterintuitively, may put America on the hook to pay the few remaining survivors.
According to a petition before Congress, “In a peace treaty with Japan, the United States promised to pay all war claims against Japan for atrocities suffered by U.S. citizens and nationals during World War II. This included the people of Guam. However, war reparations have yet to be justly awarded to Guam’s war survivors. Every one of Guam’s delegates to U.S. Congress has introduced legislation for war reparations, but still they have not been paid.”
Members of the group expect to make this happen by filing a lawsuit later this year. They will use the nonprofit to fundraise for the cost of lawyers and paperwork.
