JCP chair: Government must take relief measures for overseas Hibakusha

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo met with a 22-member delegation of the Association of South Korean Atomic Bomb Victims led by Lee Gwangsun on May 15 in the Diet building to hear their demand for Japanese government relief and assistance for overseas Hibakusha.

The delegation was visiting Japan to push the Japanese government to appropriate nine billion yen (about 70 million dollars) in additional medical assistance for South Koreans who are suffering from atomic bomb-related illnesses, and to apply the Hibakusha Aid Law to those Hibakusha who now live outside Japan. The Japanese government in 1992 appropriated four billion yen (about 70 million dollars) in medical cost assistance, but the money is expected to be depleted in 2004.

Shii assured the delegation that the JCP will do its utmost in parliament to achieve the South Korean Hibakusha's demands. Pointing out that the Japanese government is responsible for compensating South Korean Hibakusha's suffering in relation to Japan's colonization of Korea before World War II, he said, "It's really serious that the government is delaying its assistance to them."

In June 2000, the Osaka and Nagasaki district courts upheld South Korean Hibakusha's claim that they are eligible to receive health allowances in conformity with the Hibakusha Aid Law. The Japanese government has appealed to a higher court. (end)