Hibakusha call for JCP's cooperation for settlement of their lawsuits against government

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Hibakusha call for JCP's cooperation for settlement of their lawsuits against government

Atomic bomb survivors (Hibakusha) and their supporters visited Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at the JCP head office on May 25 to ask for JCP cooperation to achieve an overall settlement of their concerted lawsuits for official recognition of their diseases as caused by the 1945 A-bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hibakusha's concerted lawsuits are reaching a critical stage as the government has announced that it will make a political decision to help conclude the lawsuits after the Tokyo High Court's ruling on May 28.

Tohei Nori, representative of the Japan Confederation of A & H Bombs Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo), requested Shii to urge the government to do the following five things: swiftly provide official recognition as A-bomb-related sufferers for plaintiffs who have won their lawsuits; deal with those who are waiting for a court decision or have lost their case based on a policy of giving relief to Hibakusha; include hepatic function disorder and hypothyroid in diseases it recognizes as A-bomb caused; acknowledge more types of cancer as A-bomb caused; recognize other types of diseases if they are suspected to have been caused by the A-bombing.

Plaintiffs' leader Yamamoto Hidenori said that Hibakusha are running out of time since 68 out of 306 plaintiffs have died. "The government should revise its criteria for certifying Hibakusha's diseases in accordance with actual A-bomb damages," he stressed.

Shii expressed that the JCP supports their request and will do its utmost to realize it.

Shii introduced his letter to U.S. President Barack Obama in support of the president's call for a world without nuclear weapons, the U.S. government's reply to it, and his meeting with Prime Minister Aso Taro in this regard. "Your painful efforts have influenced international politics. Let us jointly make efforts to abolish nuclear weapons," he said.

- Akahata, May 26, 2009