Did German/ Japenese Camera makers use slave labour during World War II?

[matthew_smith1]

Hello.

 

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I hope to find out information on his controversial topic. Particularly in Japan, many of the industry leaders that would event form/ own camera companies where chief producers for the Japanese war effort. Sometimes at the expense of Korean/ Chinese slaves. The Holocaust is famous for its pervasiveness in nearly all industries. Did this apply to optical industries?

 

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Thank you

 

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M Smith

[eric_ung]

Smith

 

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To my understanding, Japaneses correctly shifted their talent from

military to consumer products only after the failure in world war II,

before that, they were more interested in torturing, rape and

killing. I don't hate Japanese, but if you have got all the relatives

on your father's side killed by them, you will understand my feeling.

[rick___2]

I have read many books on the Second World War. Most have been about

the European theater, but over the past year I got interested in the

Pacific War and have read nine books on it. I can't recall which

book I read it in, but one discussed industrial labor on the Japanese

home front. Slave labor was used, but not nearly as extensively as

it was in Nazi Germany. In Germany, slave labor was so pervasive

that it had filtered down to individual homes and farms. This was

due in a large part to the Nazi ideology that women should remain at

home. Thus, the shortage of labor was filled by peoples from the

conquered lands, including the optical industry.

 

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In Japan, the situation was different, but only in degree. Women

made up a large part of the Japanese industrial labor base, just as

they did in the U.S. The Japanese, however, did impress workers for

use outside of their homelands, most noteably Koreans. Koreans were

used in the thousands by the military to construct fortifications,

roads, buildings, you name it. And if they were unfortunate enough

to get trapped on an island the U.S. was assaulting, they died by the

hundreds along with the Japanese defenders.

 

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Don't know if slave labor was used by the Japanese in industry.

However, I have just started reading a book called "Downfall" by

Richard Frank and there is discussions about Japanese industry in it,

but I am not there yet.

 

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Incidentally, and this may fall under the category of "more than you

wanted to know", the Japanese optics industry in WWII was superb.

But it wasn't building cameras; instead, it focused (no pun intended)

on rangefinding and spotting scope devices for bombing and night

fighting. The Japanese navy was highly trained in close-in night

tactics using their advanced optics and the world's best torpedoes.

They showed how well trained they were at Guadalcanal, where their

spotters used superior optics to spot US ships at night before the US

ships (using early radar) spotted them. It was only later, with

better radar and better training in its use, that the US navy could

stand in toe-to-toe with the Japanese navy in night combat.

 

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It was only after the war that the Japanese optical industry turned

to consumer goods.

[eric_ung]

Reading books written by Causacian may not be good enough to

understand what has happened to asian including China during World

War II, I suggest you to go to visit World War Museums in various

Asian countries to get better understanding. " Walking miles of road

is better than reading thousands of book"

[jack_langdon]

Reuter reported that WWII POW forced laborers lauchned a class action

suit against Japanese companies see

<a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991207/bbe.html">WW2 POW CLASS ACTION SUITE </A>

[geoffrey_s._kane2]

My college German professor was slave labor for the Nazis during WWII.

She's Czech and was a student at the time. Her "job" was to make

munitions "used to shoot down Allied airplanes".<p>

She never gave a lot of details, but somehow she was able to attend

school, work for the Nazis and work at a paying job to earn money for

her family (never try to tell this woman that you "didn't have time"

to complete an assignment). I'm not sure how many hours of work was

required, but from her stories it sounds like maybe 2-4 hours a

day.<p>

I wouldn't be suprised to find out that steel, brass and other raw

materials from slave labor found there way into German optical

porducts, but seeing how Zeiss lens coating was a German military

secret, I doubt many foreigners were directly involved in the

process.<p>

Based on accounts of Nanking, I doubt the Japanese were interested in

"skilled" labor. Digging ditches and building bunkers are one thing,

but Japanese "pride" probably prevented them from seeking out skilled

machinists.<p>

Nikon is a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, but that is a

relatively recent relationship (late 1970's I think). Nippon Kogaku

did make rangefinders for the Imperial Navy. Binoculars were one of

their first commercial products so it wouldn't suprise me if they had

a contract for them as well.

[ralf_grambrock]

Hello,

Whether the German companies had used slaves can be found out very

simple, just watch the payment and the discussions about it.

(I'm interested as well)

 

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Second, to the guy with the many books:

Calling a world war a theater may be the wrong word!

Read very carefully, what Eric Ung had written!

 

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Third, there is no industry country around the world with "clean

fingers".

[ivan_verschoote1]

The second world war is over, slavery isn't. I forgave the German

people, but I can't forgive the Multinationals nowadays using low-cost

workers as slaves in the Fourth World countries.

[hoyin_lee1]

As one poster has pointed out, the Japanese used slave labour (mostly

Chinese and Koreans) mainly for manual work like construction and

mining during W.W.II. As far as I know, the entire Japanese wartime

industry had generally converted to production for the military, and

the military government most probably won't trust having foreign

slave labourers in the industry, especially in factories producing

militarily sensitive products such as optical equipment. So my

unresearched guess is that it would be unlikely for the Japanese to

employ slave labour *directly* in photo equipment production.

 

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On the other hand, there's concrete evidence that Nazi Germany did

use slave labour in the production of optical equipment, including

cameras. A recent issue of the British photo magazine, Amateur

Photography, published a colour (yes, colour) print that shows slave

labourers, dressed in the white-and-blue vertical stripped prisoner's

uniform, working on the production of lenses in the Leica (if I

remember correctly, that is) factory. I'll go look up that magazine

and post the article accompanied that photo.

[geoffrey_s._kane2]

Ralf, in the US it is normal to split WWII into a "European Theater"

and a "Pacific Theater" when discussing it. I'm not sure if it's an

American "thing" or if the British share in our choice of words. I'm

also unsure if this meaning for "theater" has historical or millitary

roots.<P>

I can assure you; however, that usage of "theater" is not meant to

make light of the horrors of war.

[hoyin_lee1]

Geoffery is correct about the use of the term "theatre" (Brit

spelling) in historical writing; the term refers to a theatre of war

where battles and related historical events take place.

[hoyin_lee1]

The Amateur Photographer magazine article I referred to in my

previous post was NOT about the use of German slave labour in Nazi

Germany's optical industry--that's from another article I read

somewhere. My apologies for that. However, the article is about

both Nazi slave labour and photography, and here it is:

 

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Source:

Amateur Photographer, 3 July 1999, p. 8

 

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Sub Title:

SLAVE FACTORY PHOTOS DISCOVERED AFTER 50 YEARS . STAGED IMAGES MASK

MASS DEATH HORROR

 

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Main Title:

Nazi 'death factory'photos revealed

 

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Excerpt of Article:

A set of colour photos of a Nazi slave labour rocket factory,

which lay in an attic for more than 50 years, are now on show in the

French bunker from where Hitler planned to launch strikes at London.

The images of the Dora-Mittelbau V2 rocket factory were taken in

1944 by Goering's official photographer Walter Frentz as propaganda

shots to convince the Nazi hierarchy to keep funding levels up.

However, they stayed in the attic of Frentz's house until his osn

found them in February 1998.

The images show apparently model prisoners who look healthy,

shaven and in spotless uniforms but actually they were posed. This

was partly because Frentz's rare Agfa colour film was very slow speed

and needed long, carefully posed exposures.

Ironically, the images were suppressed by the Allies after they

liberated the factory in 11 April 1945.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dora survivor ANdre Sellier--one of the exhibition organisers--

explains: 'We see a beautiful, large, well-kept factory. They chose

the presentable deportees who arrived in 1944 in the second wave,

after those who died of exhaustion during the construction of the

camp.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

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Insert:

The exhibition of photographs and drawings from the Dora camp is

called Images of Dora, 1943-1945 and it's at La Coupole Centre

d'Histoire de la Guerre et des Fusees Helfaut/Wizernes, St Omer, near

Calais in France until 31 October this year [1999]. Alternatively

you can visit the St Omer Museum of the War Internet site. Find it

at: http://www.lacoupole.com/

[jumpy_klondike]

an asian poster here intimated that, if you really want to learn

about the japanese atrocities in china and asia, read history by

asians not 'caucasians.' three facts fly in the face of this

xenophobic statement: 1. the chief reason the world knows about

the 'Nanjing Massacre' is because a nazi diplomat protested to his

government and 2. an american-european minister took what are

virtually the only photos and on-the-spots notes of the tragedy. 3.

90% of chinese 'history' during WWII are works approved by the

propoganda division of the Chinese Communist Party. May as well read

fairy tales.

[wildflower art]

I don't know if anyone is still checking this thread, but I just found that that there are many lawsuits against Mitsubishi, which owns Nikon, by Korean and Chinese peoples who were enslaved. Although they weren't directly enslaved in the production of optics, per se, it is still significant that the company is being sued and has made no resitutions.

 

Matthew

[kelly_flanigan1]

Matthew; <BR><BR><b>Nikon is a publicly traded company Japan; and NOT owned by Mitsubishi; a dinky fraction of their publicly traded shares are owned some Mitisubishi companies .<BR><BR> Nikons stock price was 1,388 JPY; at close Friday; on a volume of 5,621,000 shares; Name : NIKON ; re Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.</b><BR><BR><BR><BR><img src="http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfolio/ir/image/kabunushi/sub05_title05_2_i.gif"><img src="http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfolio/ir/image/kabunushi/02_i.gif"><img src="http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfolio/ir/image/kabunushi/01_i.gif"><img src="http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfolio/ir/image/kabunushi/zu_i.gif"><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Number of shareholders; as of Sept 30,2003 =Name of Shareholder Number

of shares held (thousands)<BR> Percentage of total shares issued <BR>

<BR>The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd., Trust Account 32,522 8.8

<BR>Meiji Life Insurance Company 20,565 5.6

<BR>Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd., Trust Account 15,012 4.1

<BR>State Street Bank and Trust Company 12,498 3.4

<BR>The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. 12,297 3.3

<BR>The Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. 10,067 2.7

<BR>The Chase Manhattan Bank NA London 9,498 2.6

<BR>The Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation 9,134 2.5

<BR>Nippon Life Insurance Company 8,994 2.4

<BR>The Nomura Trust and Banking Co., Ltd., Investment Trust Account 7,545 2.0 <BR><BR><BR>

[kelly_flanigan1]

It appears that "Mitsubishi type" companies/ KK own 3.3 + 2.5 = <b>5.8 Percent</b> of the publicly traded Nikon shares; as of Sept 30,2003. This is actual data from public records.<BR><BR> This is a far cry from 100 percent; or even 50.5 percent; which would given them full control/ guilt?. This "Mitisubishi" owning "Nikon" is compete Bull dung; in grave error; and damn false reporting. It is better to do actual research; instead of spreading wrong false rumors.<BR><BR> This "Mitsubishi owning Nikon" pops up alot; and is abit of a weird false urban legend.

<BR><BR><BR>The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. 12,297 <b>3.3 percent</b>

<BR><BR>The Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation 9,134 <b>2.5 percent</b>

[wildflower art]

I would like to thank Ms. Flanigan for pointing out my embarrassing error. She�s quite right that I should have looked more thoroughly into the issue of ownership, and as she says, it pops up that Mitsubishi owns Nikon an awful lot here on photo.net, and I was perpetuating that error. I apologize sincerely.

 

However, I still think I have a valid point.

 

Mitsubishi had a 90 percent monopoly on the Japanese economy at the time of the war, from what I�ve read. (perhaps in fact that is what led me to my error, I was thinking of Mitsubishi�s strangle hold on the Japanese economy rather than their actual ownership of Nikon).

 

Thus they, Mitsubishi, had a critical role in the Japanese army�s brutal success in East Asia. More than 20 million civilians were murdered, in fact up to 25 million or more, 20 million were enslaved, mostly Koreans and Chinese, and �easily millions� of women were raped, often particularly brutally and repeatedly. The Japanese army directly attacked one-third of the world�s population, and occupied, at their empire�s height, about one-seventh, or 370 million people, for four to fourteen years (from Mr. Gruhl�s published and unpublished works, please contact me for specifics).

 

To the specific issue of slavery addressed in this debate; it was indeed ever present in the Japanese economy of the time. In addition to the 20 million enslaved I mentioned above, and although estimates vary, one source estimates that 5.5 million Koreans were enslaved by the Japanese army of the time. This would correspond to between one out of every fifteen to one out of every ten Koreans! However, Mr. Gruhl�s numbers suggest that less Koreans were enslaved. Slavery was common, and as an anecdote, several thousand of the people who died in Hiroshima were Korean slaves incidentally there as slave laborers. The exact numbers are unknown, but it was appreciable.

 

Japanese slavery was particularly brutal, with ten percent or more of enslaved dying as a result of their servitude.

 

As I mentioned in my post, there are at least 30 lawsuits against Mitsubishi, which I should have said _party_ owns Nikon stock.

 

I still think it�s compelling that the company that _partly_ owns the stock of the company that manufactures most of my camera equipment had a major role in one of humanity�s worst tragedies. Indeed, as Japanese occupation more or less directly led to the fall of China to communism, factoring in the deaths caused by Mao�s atrocities of �the Great Leap Forward� and �the Great Cultural Revolution� would make Japanese aggression, including direct and indirect deaths, the most costly in history.

 

I would like the _partial_ owner of a minority of the stock of my camera company to not only admit to wrong doing, but try to make things right.

 

Though you are certainly right Ms. Flanigan that what you say diminishes the issue somewhat.

 

Remember the scandal over German automotive manufacture�s use of slavery and their substantial apologizes and the issue of restitution? I think it�s racism that a similar issue isn�t made of Japanese slavery.

 

So even if Mitsubishi owned one-half of one percent of Nikon stock I think this is a valid issue that the history conscious should be aware of, it certianly is to countless thousands of Koreans and Chinese.

 

Finally, I would like to add that while Mitshubishi's ownership of Nikon is a "rumor," as Ms. Flanigan calls it, that Mitsubishi used significant amounts of slave labor, caused untold damage to East Asia, and is being sued is absolutely not.

 

Matthew

 

P.S. I don�t think you can even access this thread anymore so Ms. Flanigan and I may be the only ones reading this!

[chris_hawkins]

To what end do you pursue this? Nearly all involved are dead. No deed can be

undone. A horrible injustice was committed, but please let it rest. The injustices

occuring today need your attention.