A former prisoner of war broke down in tears as he told a Tokyo court how he was beaten mercilessly in a Japanese labour camp during World War II.

Briton Arthur Titherington was one of three labour camp survivors who testified to a Japanese court in a bid for compensation and an apology from Tokyo.

Mr Titherington, who was captured by the imperial Japanese army when Singapore fell in 1942, wept as he told how guards at the prison camp in Taiwan regularly beat him.

He said he spent three years fearing death every day.

It was the sixth time he has been to the Japanese courts with Hendrik Zeeman, from New Zealand, and American Gilbert Hair.

Seeking formal apology

The three men were speaking on behalf of 25,000 labour camp survivors who are seeking compensation of �14,000 ($22,000) each and a formal apology from the Japanese government.

Japanese courts have never ruled against the Tokyo government on the issue of war compensation.

Mr Titherington, chairman of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors of Great Britain, said afterwards: "If there is any justice in Japan then we've won. If that did not get the judge to see what a moral issue it is then Japan goes down in my estimation."

Arthur Titherington: "We lived in fear of death"

Heart of stone

His solicitor Martyn Day said: "You would have had to have had a heart of stone not to have been moved. Although the Japanese judges' job is not to show emotion during the course of the hearing I would be very surprised if they hadn't caught some feel for the moral imperative."

Henrik Zeeman, from New Zealand, says: "We are the forgotten people. The world doesn't know and the world doesn't care.

"People say 'Why do you still fight for it ?' For the simple reason that it hasn't been recognised."

Japan says the issue is closed.

Sadaki Numata: "Our apologies should be accepted"

Compensation was settled

Foreign ministry spokesman Sadaki Numata says: "The compensation question was legally settled at the San Fransisco conference in 1951 and payment was made as an indemnity. It was a very substantial amount in that day and age when Japan was rebuilding itself from the ashes of war.

"We have proffered our very sincere apologies and they should be accepted."

The issue was raised by Tony Blair during a recent visit to Japan

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, raised the subject again last month when he visited his opposite number Ryutaro Hashimoto in Tokyo.

Mr Hashimoto offered a carefully worded apology and increased the amount Japan spends on cultural exchanges for former PoWs and their relatives.

But neither the apology nor the extra money appeased the former PoWs, who say they will appeal right up to the Japanese supreme court.

A verdict is expected in the summer but already some of the former PoWs are threatening to disrupt Emperor Akihito's visit to Britain in May.