NAGASAKI--Strict criteria over whether a person qualifies as a hibakusha survivor has meant that many people, through no fault of their own, missed out on health and medical benefits for decades.

Hoping to change that, the Nagasaki Doctor & Dentist Association here on May 11 released a digital map of locations where radioactive “black rain” fell in the immediate aftermath of the city’s atomic bombing in 1945.

The project is intended to help so-called A-bomb experiencers: those exposed to fallout from the Aug. 9, 1945, bombing but not yet officially recognized as such because they did not live in the central government-designated “A-bombed zone.”

An association official expressed hope the map will serve as an objective record of rainfall in areas around Nagasaki that have yet to be included in the official A-bombed zone

RAINFALL, RADIATION RECORDS

The map lists 595 locations where the NDDA says it found records, in three documents, of black rain falling or where radiation was detected.

Most of the locations lie in the officially recognized A-bombed zone and within the bounds of the prefectural capital. Some, however, lie outside the zone.

The rainfall data is based on two documents: records of interviews conducted in the 1950s by the U.S. Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) with around 40,000 Nagasaki residents and testimonials collected in fiscal 1999 by the Nagasaki city government and other parties from 8,700 residents of areas outside the official A-bombed zone.

The ABCC is the predecessor to today’s Radiation Effects Research Foundation.

NDDA officials identified 317 locations where black rain fell, including areas outside the officially designated A-bombed zone.

The other evidential document comes from the U.S. Manhattan Project Atomic Bomb Investigating Group, which measured radiation levels in Nagasaki Prefecture in September and October 1945.

The group’s survey results show radiation levels in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. NDDA officials plotted 278 spots where similar measurements were made, which included the city of Omura and the Shimabara Peninsula.

Public relief payments in the context of the Nagasaki bombing have long been an issue, more so now because of the advanced age of the victims.

Prefectural and municipal authorities here submitted a report to the health ministry last July which stated that radioactive black rain fell outside the officially recognized A-bombed zone. The finding was based in part on the fiscal 1999 survey of testimonials.

It cited a 2021 Hiroshima High Court decision, which recognized plaintiffs who were exposed to black rain that fell outside the official A-bombed zone of Hiroshima as hibakusha eligible for benefits, in calling on the central government to provide relief to Nagasaki “A-bomb experiencers.”

The health ministry refused to budge from its position in a report it issued in January.

“Decisions made in court cases in the past established that no objective records are available for similar rainfalls,” part of the ministry’s reply said.

The NDDA was incensed by the health ministry’s attitude.

It pointed out, in a written protest, that the Hiroshima High Court decision confirmed that a person is entitled to be certified as a hibakusha if the chances of internal exposure to radiation cannot be disputed.

The protest cited the Manhattan group’s investigations and other sources in arguing, among other things, there is indisputable proof that radioactive fallout descended in Nagasaki as well.

‘LOGICAL FLAWS’

The ABCC document, despite the fact it was not used in the report issued by the prefectural and municipal governments, formed an essential part of the digital map.

“Our map will serve as an objective record that visually shows where the rainfall fell in Nagasaki,” said Koya Honda, chairman of the NDDA.

Honda, 66, added that he hopes the map will be used as material for pointing out logical flaws in the ministry’s response to the report.

To view the digital map, which can be accessed with Google Maps, visit a Japanese-language page titled “Nagasaki A-bomb rainfall locations” (https://www.vidro.gr.jp/nagasakigenbaku/) on the NDDA website.

(This article was written by Emika Terashima and Mami Okada.)