Seventy-five years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the survivors of the nuclear attacks are all elderly.

To swiftly provide relief to these aging hibakusha, the government should abandon its traditional policy of recognizing people exposed to the radiation according to a rigid zoning system.

The government, along with Hiroshima Prefecture and the city of Hiroshima, have appealed a court ruling that ordered the authorities to provide relief to all people who were exposed to the radioactive "black rain” that fell on Hiroshima soon after the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing. 

In the July 29 ruling, the Hiroshima District Court said those who were outside the zone designated by the government should also be covered by a relief program.

The court recognized the plaintiffs, who lived outside of the zone, also as hibakusha and eligible for state health care and other aid. It ordered the local governments to issue “hibakusha health books,” which show that the holders are officially recognized as hibakusha, on behalf of the central government.

In announcing the decision to appeal the ruling, health minister Katsunobu Kato said the ministry will embark on a review for a possible extension of the zone by conducting a fresh study.

The district court ruling criticized the government’s policy of restricting the recognition of hibakusha under the geographical zoning system. The ruling placed primary importance on individual atomic bomb survivors’ testimonies about their experiences and their actual health conditions in determining their eligibility for the program.

It also recognized the relevance of the plaintiffs’ testimonies that they consumed water and crops contaminated by radioactive materials and said they were also likely affected by “internal exposure," which occurs when a radioactive material enters the body through ingestion.

Both the plaintiffs and the prefectural and municipal administrations had urged the central government not to appeal the decision.

But the government, referring to a past Supreme Court ruling, argued that the district court decision is at odds with its traditional position on the issue, which it says places the top priority on established scientific knowledge and theories.

After talks with the central government, the local administrations accepted the decision to appeal the ruling on condition that the covered zone be expanded.

Kato stressed that the review of the zoning will be done with dispatch by making maximum use of accumulated data and resorting to state-of-the-art technology.

It is, however, unclear whether the government will be able to deliver on this promise in a way that actually leads to relief to hibakusha who are currently not entitled to the benefits of the program.

In 1976, the government first divided the areas where the radioactive rain fell into “heavy rain” and “light rain” zones, making only people who were in the “heavy rain” zones eligible for the relief program. The zoning has never been reviewed since then.

The zoning is based on a limited survey conducted immediately after the victims were exposed to the radiation. But it has not been subject to a revision because of a government advisory council’s report arguing that a new designation of areas exposed to the radiation from the atomic bombings should be done only when there are scientific and reasonable grounds for taking the step.

In 2008, the prefectural and municipal authorities announced the results of a new study that estimated that the total area exposed to the radioactive rain was up to six times larger than that of the officially designated zones. But the central government adamantly stuck to its decades-old position on the issue.

Several thousands of people other than the plaintiffs have been denied the benefits of the relief program despite being exposed to the black rain, according to an estimate by the city.

There is an urgent need to find more facts about such people. There are many concerns about the fate of these forgotten victims. Will the covered areas actually be expanded without a waste of time, for instance? There could still be black rain victims who remain uncovered even after the zone is expanded.

There are also similar victims in Nagasaki who have been given a raw deal because of the zoning system.

A group of people in the city who were exposed to the radiation outside the government-designated areas tried to be recognized as hibakusha through a lawsuit. In a 2016 ruling, the Nagasaki District Court recognized some of the plaintiffs as hibakusha according to the estimated radiation exposure regardless of the areas where they were.

But a high court ruling reversed the decision in a legal defeat for the plaintiffs, and the Supreme Court rejected their appeal.

As one criteria for being recognized as hibakusha, the atomic bomb victims relief law cites “people who were in a situation that caused them to be physically affected by the radiation from the atomic bombs.”

The government should offer relief to a broad range of atomic bomb survivors in line with this principle without being bound by the zoning system.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 13