Although not passed, the resolution recognized
the longstanding frustration of victims and registered
dissatisfaction with the Government’s position that
American lawsuits against Japan and Japanese companies
over war crimes were precluded by the 1951 Peace
Treaty between the United States and Japan, despite side
agreements providing Americans with treatment comparable
to that of compensated victims in other countries.
The movement to call Japan to account stemmed
in part from dissatisfaction with perceived postwar leniency
toward Japan and Japanese war criminals, a leniency
that was part of the effort to get that country
firmly in the American camp during the Cold War