OXFORD University has accepted a scholarship endowment from a Japanese corporation that used prisoner-of-war slave labour during the Second World War.
Student groups have attacked the decision, claiming this to be a further example of the University’s willingness to ignore ethical considerations when receiving endowments and donations.
The Aso Group, a Japanese industrial corporation, has never admitted or apologised for the firm’s use of British and Allied prisoners as slave labour.
In 1945, Aso forced 197 Australian, 101 British and 2 Dutch PoWs to work at its mines at a site known as Fukuoka PoW Branch Camp 26, along with 12,000 Korean slaves. The camp was closed later that year, following the surrender of Japanese forces.
In surrender documents given to General MacArthur at the end of the Second World War by Japan, Fukuoka was listed in a list of prison camps which contained Allied PoWs used by private companies.
Japanese authorities ordered records of the company’s mining activities destroyed in 1945, but amateur historians later discovered that prisoners were forced to work underground for 15 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Aso-funded scholarship will cover University and college fees, fund return air travel to the UK and provide accommodation at New College outside of term-time.
David Amos of Oxford’s People and Planet Group, which campaigns for fair and ethical investment, condemned the University’s decision to accept money from the group.
“Given the University’s investment history, this hardly comes as a surprise,” he said. “It is time that Oxford University took its ethical responsibilities over investments and scholarships seriously.”
The scholarship will be open to Japanese nationals, or individuals who speak Japanese as a first language. It will also be necessary for them to have a link to the Fukuoka Prefacture, a province in Kyushu Island, where the Aso Mining Corporation’s PoW camp was based.
Harold Newman, National Chairman of the Association of Jewish ex-Servicemen and Women, said, “If the Aso group acknowledge that they employed prisoners of war as slave labour, and when they offer compensation to the victims and their families, we would not object to the scholarship.” He added, “We have members of our organisation who were treated harshly.”
The President of Aso Group is Yutaka Aso, a former student of New College who was taught by its current Warden, Professor Alan Ryan. From 1969 to 1971, he studied for a Diploma in Social and Political Studies at New College. In 2005 Yutaka was also awarded the French Légion d’Honneur by the French Ambassador in Tokyo.
Earlier last year Yutaka Aso’s brother Taro Aso, who at the time was Japan’s foreign minister, refused to confirm that PoWs were forced to work for his family’s company. Taro Aso was previously President of what was then called Aso Cement.
Among the war veterans who have demanded compensation is an 87-year-old Australian man who was forced to work at the camp. He sent a personal letter to Taro Aso, requesting an apology and compensation for his unpaid work at Aso Mining Co but received no reply.
A spokesperson for the University said that funding for the scholarship would not come from the part of Aso Group that used PoW labour.
“The Aso Group is an umbrella for a number of companies,” she said. “One is Aso Cement, which was formed from Aso Mining. Aso Cement is separate from the part of the Aso Group that the scholarship funding has come from.”
She added that the ex-Foreign Minister, who is the brother of the benefactor and a previous head of the company, was not involved in the scholarship agreement.
In an official statement, University Vice-Chancellor John Hood said, ‘The University is very grateful for Mr Aso’s generosity, and we hope the scholarship will help to strengthen our ties with Japan, and Japanese students, in particular.”

***What to make of The Wombats? Just another NME chart-topping, animal-loving band from up North? Just another bunch of floppy-haired indie kids sporting hoodies in primary colours and referencing seminal 80s bands? Well, yes and no. On one hand, this scouse three-piece is indistinguishable from the current hordes of guitar-driven indie bands. While perhaps most akin to The Cribs, The Wombats’ influences are diverse and plentiful: a quirky Kooks riff here, a charmingly boyish Blur-inspired lyric there, even a chorus line nabbed from the Beach Boys in ‘Dr Suzanne Mattox PHD’. On the other hand, however, they stand out from the throngs of indie-poppers in their ability to produce happy, smiley hooks out of bitter and melancholy lyrics. Their debut album is essentially one big sugar-coated diatribe.
It is an album which could not be more aptly titled. Whether it be Laura, Louise, Patricia The Stripper (the list goes on), A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation does exactly what it says on the tin, trotting out account after tiresome account of romantic misadventure.Thankfully, however, there are exceptions – most notably, the deliciously ironic ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’, which is currently gracing many a radio airwave. And let’s not forget the ponderous plinkety-plonk of the sweetly stoical ‘Little Miss Pipedream’ – the only pop song ever to feature the word ‘fulcrum’!But alas, these are but rare gems amid a sea of Liverpudlian grit. It is this album’s overwhelming sense of familiarity and monotony, rather than its hooks and quirks, which linger on the brain.Do The Wombats bring anything particularly new or original to today’s indie-swamped music scene? No, not really. But will they soon be bringing crowds of you  to the dance floors of PoNaNa or Bridge? Yes, inevitably.By Emma Woods

OUSU Presidential front-runner Lewis Iwu’s campaign actively attempted to seek out information in order to defame another candidate, the Returning Officer ruled on Wednesday.
Iwu’s campaign agent, Jason Sarfo-Annin, sent emails to former Oxford students who have since left the University, trying to find details that would enable him to maliciously discredit Labour Club candidate Olivia Bailey, who is also running for President.
OUSU Returning Officer James Dray ruled that Iwu’s campaign was in breach of rules relating to mailings and use of the Internet to distribute electoral material. He reduced Iwu’s publicity limit by a fifth, cutting 100 posters from his campaign, and fining him £10 from his £50 deposit.
Dray added to his ruling, “It may not sound like a lot but it’s about as strict a fine as I can give, it would normally be 30 or 40 stamps. Lewis didn’t do it himself and may not have known that his agent did it. But his agent was asking for information which was clearly going to be used in a malicious manner, which is a serious offence.”
In an email to Steve Longden, last year’s Campaigns & Membership Officer for the Oxford University Labour Club, Sarfo-Annin said, “We’re enjoying great support from students at the moment, even from a lot of members of the Oxford University Labour Club. However, due to political reasons most of them are sitting on their hands and don’t want to be seen helping us, which is fair enough.
“However, a few have mentioned the fact that Olivia worked for Labour Students, and was forced to resign her position. I know that you know the story. I wanted to get the exact details first hand, I was hoping that you’d be able to give me the details.”
He added, “Naturally, this is all off the record and if we do decide to use this info it will never be traced back to you.”
Longden promptly forwarded the email to members of Olivia Bailey’s campaign, who issued a formal complaint to the Returning Officer.
Included in the complaint was a copy of a similar message sent on Facebook to London Young Labour Campaigns Officer Lynne Wells, and an admission by Iwu’s agent Sarfo-Annin that a similar message was sent to Kenny Young, Chair of Labour Students.
In the message to Lynne Wells, Sarfo-Annin asked for “exact detail and circumstances” of Bailey’s resignation from Labour Students. He added, “I’d like to ask you if you could put some pressure on Stephen Longden or even Kenny Young if you know him. Because of the nature of these elections, it’s very easy to leak stuff without people knowing the source. So anonymity is guaranteed if that’s an issue.”
Figures close to Lewis Iwu’s campaign team have suggested that they will not be appealing against the decision. Sarfo-Annin was unable to comment due to election regulations preventing candidates or their agents speaking to the press.
Labour Club sources suggested off the record that Bailey resigned as National Treasurer for Labour Students to concentrate on her work as new JCR President for St Hilda’s, not having the time to maintain both positions of responsibility.
by Staff Reporters

by Sophie Duncan Dancing girls, confetti and pyrotechnics: Spamalot is the rising star of Big Theatre, dwarfed only by the all-singing, all-dancing, unassailable barricades of Les Miserables. Grown-up actors scramble for the roles created by Tim Curry and David Hyde-Pierce: grown up audiences cheer and stamp six nights a week at The Palace Theatre. Further up the Thames, though, some younger thespians curl their downy lips.

Big Theatre is monied, spectactular and (by definition) successful: all the things student theatre cannot rely on being. Moreover, we often hear that without the social evil that is the sequin (symbol, apparently, of the unfashionable suggestion that theatre should sometimes be enjoyable), the dramatic world would be a better, more serious place. The West End, for instance, would have more room for Oxonian thesps when they emerge as Exciting New Voices/Breakthrough Talent/Very Special Snowflakes in two or three years’ time. This intellectual snobbery is fortunately not absolute. Musicals of Oxford put on top-class productions and the best piece of Oxford theatre I’ve ever seen was Seb Cameron’s production of Company in Hilary last year. Here, then, is the case for Big Theatre in the professional world, and why its detractors should grow up.

Firstly, even geniuses have to eat. West End musicals employ more performers, technicians and musicals than any other UK theatrical form. ‘Performers’ is a loaded term, implying singers and dancers as well as actors. Actors often look down on singers and dancers as not intellectual or serious enough about their ‘art’: this is amusing, since actors often can’t sing or dance. A trainee lawyer or doctor understands the need to be professionally flexible and update his or her skills: trainee actors must do the same. The relative stability of a long West End contract may well one day appeal. Work with even the most prestigious touring company can mean uprooting partners or children, or miserable separation – and this is an inevitability, since London doesn’t guarantee work and turning down all non-London job offers is career suicide. In a career in classical theatre, there comes a time when they should stop offering you Horatio and start offering you Hamlet. If it never comes, you will be climbing over the backs of your best friends for the kind of job you now despise. Most real actors, jobbing actors, take the best jobs they can get, in a range of media, from children’s programming to more adult pursuits. (I’m not advocating porn. Well, I am advocating porn. But only in moderation, and after Finals).

One of the reasons I – and, I hope, others– want to act is to entertain others as well as to provoke. If you look at the faces of theatregoers after a big show, they’re uplifted. Spectacular shows restore a sense of wonder in the audience’s lives, providing a service of escapism and – in Spamalot – a determined message of diversity and inclusion. Meanwhile, London’s most beautiful theatres, many of which now exist solely to show musicals, stay open, and hundreds of people from dressers to dancers go on paying the mortgage.

Where the work of new voices and artists is stifled, Big Theatre is not the culprit. Experimental groups such as DV8, Frantic Assembly and Told By An Idiot are feeling the pinch. After 20 years of peaceful coexistence with the darlings of  Shaftesbury Avenue, Howard Barker’s The Wrestling School has been denied the funding it needs to tour.

I like musicals because I like music, going to the theatre and because my heart has yet to harden into a swinging brick. And finally, all those snowflakes should bear in mind that Thelma Holt Productions shares a roof with Avenue Q. So. Happy November, and good luck with those applications.Sophie Duncan has seen Spamalot three times. Her favourite bit is the gay wedding.

Labour Club candidate Olivia Bailey was penalised on Wednesday for presenting a misleading statement about a rival candidate on her personal website.
Dissatisfaction with the Returning Officer’s original ruling forced Olivia Bailey’s campaign team to unsuccessfully appeal the decision to the panel that judges appeals, Junior Tribunal.
The statement, on Bailey’s Facebook page, said, “I am being open and honest about my political affiliations. All the candidates in this election have their own political views, nobody is completely independent.” Lewis Iwu claims on his own site that he “has no hidden agenda” and has described himself as an “independent candidate” in the election.
Although rivals, both Bailey and Iwu are members of the Oxford University Labour Club, but only Bailey has their endorsement as an official Labour Club candidate. In contrast to Bailey, Iwu is not running on a slate with other candidates.
OUSU Returning Officer James Dray originally upheld the complaint and reduced Bailey’s publicity limit by 20 poster stamps.
Following an appeal that Bailey was entitled to express an opinion about her rival candidate, Junior Tribunal issued a ruling which stated, “Lewis Iwu and Olivia Bailey are in direct competition and so expressions of opinion about any other candidate are permitted. We do find, however, that Olivia Bailey is in breach of SO 3d7i since the statement “I am being open and honest about my political affiliations. All the candidates in this election have their own political views, nobody is completely independent,” is misleading in its implication that Lewis Iwu is not being open and honest about his political affiliations, when we have no evidence to suggest that he is not.”
The panel therefore ruled that Bailey remove “nobody is completely independent” from her website and upheld the Returning Officer’s original fine.
Bailey and Iwu refused to comment directly on the issue, citing election rules preventing them from speaking to journalists. Both candidates will stand for election as OUSU President next Thursday.

Quod is one of those places that just oozes sophistication. I remember coming up to Oxford a year a go and thinking that, thanks to the uplighters on the outside of the building, the soft lighting inside and the (largely) well turned out clientele, that the restaurant must be ridiculously overpriced: suitable only for overpaid North Oxford types or financially overendowed Brookes students. How wrong I was. Quod is, in fact, perfectly affordable. True, you couldn’t ‘do lunch’ there everyday, but there’s no reason why you can’t treat yourself (or get your parents or partner to do the same) every once in a while. It’s Fifth Week, after all. So wash away those blues with a good bottle of moderately priced wine and a steak which will make the idea of writing your fifth (or tenth) essay of the term sail away into a medium rare haze of hedonism.On the whole, the food is very good and the menu is nicely varied. The average main course will only set you back ten to fifteen pounds, and the portions are large enough to warrant the fact that you don’t usually get a side portion of vegetables. Among the best things on the menu are the steak (arguably the best in Oxford), the sea bass, the fishcakes and their confit du canard. All top quality ingredients, all very tasty and filling. Nevertheless, if you do have space for pudding – sample their cheesecake. It’s probably the best I’ve ever had.Moreover, even if their current attire makes them look like pirates, the waiting staff achieve that balance between being too attentive, and ignoring you completely.  But if there’s anything wrong about Quod, it’s that their coffee isn’t strong enough, particuarly if you’ve just had a bottle of wine and full plate of food.  But this is a minor detail. All in all, Quod deserves its reputation as one of the nicer restaurants in Oxford. So, go on: push the boat out this week and indulge yourself. And definitely choose the cheesecake.
By Daniel Rolle

Students at St Catherine’s have become victims of an infestation of blood-sucking bed bugs that allegedly appeared during the summer.
The invasion of parasites has forced undergraduates to vacate their rooms for over two weeks, forcing them to remove their rooms as pest control services fumigate infected areas.
Four finalists and two freshers, all living in the same staircase, were forced to leave after students received bites from the vermin. Experts were called in to sanitise the rooms and college housekeeping staff had to assist in washing and dry-cleaning their bed sheets and clothing in an effort to eradicate the bugs.
Students allege that the college has known about an infestation since the summer vacation, when visitors were staying in the rooms. They say the College promised to remove the pests at the time, but when students complained of bites and irritation at the beginning of term, it emerged that fumigation had not been sufficiently thorough.
One student, who wished to remain anonymous, criticised the College’s actions in dealing with the initial problem, saying, “Someone spoke to James Bennet, the Bursar, about what was going on but he tried to tell her it could be anything from fleas brought in from home to meningitis. Another person complained but when her room was checked she was told there was nothing there.
“It was only after further complaints that all the rooms were checked. Six students came back to find letters on their doors telling them that they would be moved to outside accommodation while the problem was dealt with” she said.
Although St Catherine’s have refused to comment, a third-year student has corroborated the reports saying, “There were finalists in the staircase and they got badly bitten.”
“It surfaced that the College already knew about the bedbugs and had taken measures. Apparently they were brought in by people staying in the rooms over the summer. If that is true then the college should have been more alert, but when students complained they were slow to act,” she said.
Reports also suggest that St Catherine’s originally intended to move the affected students to accommodation outside of the College, but that finalists resisted this move and insisted they be provided with on-site rooms.
“They were going to move us to outside flats with complete strangers,” one student said. “This would have been quite inappropriate and College refused to provide transport to move our belongings to these rooms. It was only after further complaints that we were moved to the alternative rooms in College.”
Replacement rooms were sprayed with repellent before students moved in, but students could only take a few necessary books with them which were also sprayed with repellent.
The students affected have said that they were eventually happy with how the situation has been dealt with.
The clean-up operation involved an extensive fumigation of the rooms. Pest control teams use a special insecticide solution to kill insects and freeze their eggs while badly infested furniture was destroyed. Witnesses say they saw replacement mattresses being delivered to the college in last week.
Robert Miller, a pest control expert from Advanced Pest Control, said bed bugs required special techniques for total removal.
“People think bed bugs only live in beds when in fact they can survive almost anywhere,” he said.

by Ben LaffertyOxford theatre doesn’t do much for the lads. Softly spoken aesthetes of delicate temperament get their weekly doses of inner turmoil and post-modern angst, while the red-blooded FHM readers of the community are left clutching their cider bottles in the cold. Well, no longer, as Jez Butterfield’s award winning first play careens onto the Oxford stage.

I don’t mean to suggest that a Y-chromosome is strictly necessary to enjoy this show, at least not so much as a few stiff drinks and the attention span of an epileptic moth. This is a play about speed, in every sense, and the pace rarely lets up for long. The constant blurring of frenetic action, amphetamine-fuelled babbling and simmering violence make for a diverting, occasionally amusing, visual spectacle. The fatigue that comes of watching this show is born not of boredom, but over-stimulation.

This lack of focus is fine when the cast’s significant flaws are cloaked by the noise and excitement that characterises much of the play. If these enthusiastic young men weren’t called on to act once every ten or fifteen minutes, the experience might even become enjoyable. Niceties out of the way first. Sam Kennedy’s portrayal of a nightclub owner’s progeny is hardly a master-class, but provides the stand-out performance. He might lack emotional depth, but his swagger has just the right mixture of self-assurance, insecurity and menace. Nat Gordon’s performance is similarly blunt. We’re looking at a cockney wide-boy a la Harry Enfield, which you’re free to take as a recommendation if you must. In spite of that, his natural affability and inane grin make his character the only likeable one of the gibbering bunch.

When things are progressing a mile-a-minute, Gerard Miles’ understated impassivity acts as a sort of dramatic gravity well on stage, an appreciable relief from the incessant hullabaloo. But when engaged in protracted dialogue, things grind to a halt. His apathy drains the play’s accumulated momentum, and in moments Mojo transforms from a mindless diversion to being actively bad. If Miles’ performance is merely lacklustre, then Jack Sanderson-Thwaite’s is like nails on a blackboard. While the cast’s better members work hard to evoke 1950s London through speech and studied movement, Sanderson-Thwaite is wildly, jarringly anachronistic. There is an indefinable aspect to his anaemic self-pity that returns us firmly to 2007.

This might be the closest we will come to seeing Reservoir Dogs on the Oxford stage this year. Those who revelled in the kinetic exuberance of Tarantino’s early work might find something to like here, but this has none of his wit. There is too much reliance on poorly executed physical comedy, too great a propensity to lean on crudity for this to be pleasurable in anything more than sporadic bursts. Maybe this one is for ‘the boys’ after all.  They’re welcome to it.
Dir. Adam Grant
& Kate Antrobus
BT 7.30 Tues-Sat
6th Week

by Sarah DaviesDespite its title, Tom Costello’s newest play is anything but a laughing matter. Set in a dystopian not-too-distant future, the audience is thrown into a world ravaged by over-population, social darwinism, and severely mediocre sitcoms.

The premise of the play is simple: the characters work as scriptwriters on the most popular show on TV. They hate it, but when they are instructed to end it by murdering the entire cast in the most mundane way possible, it creates a dilemma – surely even this, the very worst of shows, deserves a satisfactory ending?

However, the main interest of the play lies in the relationships between the cast members. At first it seems that it is a straightforward case of adultery, and we watch as Charlotte tries to make the decision between her ever-so-slightly dull boyfriend and  her exciting toyboy. Yet as the play progresses it becomes clear the choice is not between men but between principles. Should she stay with her idealistic partner in reality, trying to make a difference, or move to the gated paradise of “the Orchard” and live carefree with her lover? Ultimately, her choice forces both Charlotte, and the audience, to question which they value more: moral standards or individual happiness.

The cast’s performances add variety and encourage you to engage with what could have ended up a rather depressing production. There’s the overtly public school boyfriend, the obnoxious intern trading on his father’s name, and the adulterous Charlotte, who despite having no one but herself to blame one can’t help but sympathise with.

In short: the idea’s interesting, the script’s good and the performances are engaging. 
By: Tom Costello
BT, 9.30pm Tues-Sat
6th Week

A Univ fresher’s nose was broken after a fight at the Old Fire Station night club last Wednesday night, allegedly with another student.
The assault took place during a drinking session with the University College rugby team. A teammate knocked into another man at the club while dancing, provoking him to punch the fresher in the face.
The victim, who did not wish to be named, said, “I don’t know who the guy was but I think he was a student. Something annoyed him. I think one of my mates may have knocked into him. He turned around and hit me in the face.
“The bouncers kicked both of us out, saying they wanted no trouble from us. I went to hospital and they said I had fractured my nose.”
A witness at the scene reported hearing a commotion and then seeing a man being led out of the OFS.
“It happened really quickly,” he said. “I saw nothing but I heard a lot of shouting behind me. When I turned round I saw him [the victim of the assault] being kicked out. I heard he went straight to hospital. The whole thing’s pretty bad. There is no need for this kind of thing to happen on a night out, especially when the guy doesn’t seem to have done anything to provoke the attack.”
The identity of the attacker was not known though the victim suspected he was an Oxford undergraduate. The victim said he would not be pressing charges, and Thames Valley Police confirmed that no arrests were made in connection with the assault.
The news follows a campaign by local police at the beginning of the term to prevent anti-social behaviour induced by drink. University students were warned during a month-long campaign of bus ads, posters and radio broadcasts that strict penalties for anti-social behaviour fuelled by alcohol and drugs use would be imposed.