A Chinese non-government organization has written to Japan's ambassador to China, seeking an apology from the Japanese government for using forced Chinese laborers during World War II.

Chinese nationals on behalf of the wartime Chinese forced laborers in Japan sign a deal with Mitubishi Materials in Beijing on June 1, 2016. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

"The Japanese government can never escape the responsibilities of kidnapping Chinese citizens and forcing them to work for Japanese enterprises," the China Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan (CFDC) said in the letter to ambassadorYutaka Yokoi.

"After the Pacific War broke out, the Japanese cabinet promulgated the Resolution on Moving Chinese Laborers to Japan on Nov. 27, 1942 and the Resolution on Facilitating the Moving of Chinese Laborers to Japan on Feb. 26, 1944. The two resolutions prove that the Japanese government was responsible for the crime of kidnapping Chinese laborers," the letter said.

Copies of the letter have been sent to the ambassador through fax and express delivery.

Three representatives of the surviving Chinese laborers signed a deal with Mitsubishi Materials on June 1. The Japanese company agreed to offer an apology and compensate 100,000 yuan (US$15,000) per person to the nearly 4,000 Chinese nationals who were forced to work in labor camps during World War II.

It's not enough that only Japanese enterprises apologize, the CFDC president Tong Zeng said.

The Japanese government must face up to history, apologize to Chinese laborers and offer them corresponding compensation, so as to seek forgiveness and make sure the tragedy of war will never be repeated, Tong said.

At least 39,000 Chinese people were forcibly brought to Japan from China between 1943 and 1945. Almost 7,000 of them died there because of the rigors of their labor, the squalid conditions and a lack of basic essentials such as food and water.

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