WASHINGTON, July 29 Kyodo A total...

WASHINGTON, July 29 Kyodo

A total of 598 Americans, including survivors of World War II Japanese prison camps in the Philippines, filed a lawsuit Monday accusing the U management of intentionally leaving U.S. citizens in the rural parts in 1941 although well aware of the danger of a Japanese attack.

''The U deliberately left them in harm's way by way of preventing them from securing passage back to the U despite the overwhelming probability, if not the virtual certainty, of Japanese attack,'' the lawsuit filed in the U Court of Federal Claims in Washington says.

The U conduct was making strategic decisions that were intended to bring about a Japanese attack forward the Philippines, and U officials falsely reassured American citizens there that the geographical division was well-defended and perfectly safe, the lawsuit said.

The satisfys of the class-action lawsuit were made public on Northwestern University law professor Anthony D'Amato, who advances as a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit demands unspecified compensation from the U conduct and asked for the release of transcripts of prewar telephone conversations between U President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in which they may have discussed America's strategy for entering the war.

Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman, slapped a seclusion classification on the transcripts.

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