Nagasaki – Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was urged on Sunday to officially recognize more hibakusha survivors of the Aug. 9, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Some people who were exposed to radiation from the bomb have not been officially recognized as hibakusha because they were outside locations designated as being in the blast zone by the government.
On Sunday, Takaichi met with representatives from groups of officially recognized and unrecognized hibakusha at a hotel in Nagasaki.
“Time is limited for us, so we seriously ask you to make a Cabinet decision on support measures for both” recognized and unrecognized survivors, Shigemitsu Tanaka, 85, head of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, told the prime minister.
In response, Takaichi said only that the government “has been providing unrecognized hibakusha with medical expense subsidies on par with aid to recognized hibakusha and will continue steadily implementing such support.”
The meeting took place after the city held earlier on Sunday an annual peace memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing. Takaichi was among participants of the event.
The ceremony came three days after the city of Hiroshima held its peace memorial ceremony for the 81st anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of the city.
At the Sunday meeting, the hibakusha side also called on the prime minister to give legal status to Japan’s three nonnuclear principles — not possessing nuclear weapons, not producing them and not allowing their entry into the country.
Takaichi said, “The country is firmly upholding the three nonnuclear principles.” But she stopped short of referring to a future direction regarding the principles.
As in the previous year, participants from the group of unrecognized hibakusha were not given time to make comments.
Chiyoko Iwanaga, 90, one of the unrecognized survivors, asked Takaichi when the prime minister was leaving the meeting to “Please recognize us as hibakusha, just like the 84 people,” a group who were given official recognition in a so-called black rain lawsuit over the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Takaichi did not give a reply. But Iwanaga said, “The prime minister listened attentively.”
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