A-bomb survivors urge government to improve relief measures

More than 100 A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) from throughout Japan came to Tokyo on December 4 to press the government to act to improve relief measures for Hibakusha.

In the day of action that was organized by the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo), participants visited the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, and the Komei Party.

The petitioners called for state compensation to be extended to cover those who died from illnesses caused by the atomic bombings. They also requested that the complicated procedures to receive the Hibakusha health care allowance be simplified, that Hibakusha who now live outside of Japan be eligible to receive Hibakusha allowances and appropriate medical treatment, that the present unscientific method of certifying Hibakusha with A-bomb-related diseases be replaced with a more scientific one, and that the subsidies to Hibakusha for medical expenditures be applied to second generation Hibakusha.

They also demanded that 83 lawmakers, who had stated during the latest general election that Japan should consider possessing nuclear weapons, retract their opinions and pay attention to Hibakusha's suffering. (end)