Author 丨Bowo
Next week, the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima will mark its 75th anniversary. Before mourning began, on July 29, Japan's Hiroshima District Court affirmed the status of 84 atomic bomb survivors who could finally enjoy a number of benefits, including free medical care.
The lawsuit was filed five years ago, and the 84 plaintiffs ranged in age from 70 to 90. They are all from the same region, Akita-cho and Sabo-ku in Hiroshima. But behind this lawsuit, protests, evidence collection and other activities have lasted for more than 40 years, and the babies born that year have been dying of old age, and many people have passed away. It was a relay between the living and the dead, with one survivor collecting 163 brown envelopes containing the testimonies of the victims of the black rain, and after his death, another continued the mission, visiting communities and collecting stories.
This time, the court favored the views of the 84 plaintiffs. After the court announced the verdict, the plaintiffs' lawyer held up a banner that read "Total Victory."
Outside the courtroom, plaintiffs' lawyers hold up banners that read "Total Victory" (Source: telegraph)
Masaaki Takano, chairman of the Hiroshima Prefectural Atomic Bomb Black Rain Committee, is 79 years old. He was physically strong and could still farm in the mountains of Hiroshima, pick cucumbers and eggplants, and sincerely thank the plants.
One summer day 75 years ago, 4-year-old Masaaki Takano saw a sudden strong light in the sky, and there was a loud explosion in the city. A few hours later, an unprecedented amount of snow fell from the sky, ashes the size of pieces of paper and banknotes.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The explosion killed more than 70,000 people in an instant, and three days later, a second bomb exploded over Nagasaki, killing another 40,000 people. The explosion sparked a fire, and tornado-like flames swept across the city. Many of the survivors were covered in blisters; bodies piled up on the streets.
79-year-old Masaaki Takano (Source: Manichi)
Over Takano's village, a heavy black rain followed by heavy snow fell — the heat from the explosion steamed upwards, forming cumulonimbus clouds, and fragments of radiation fell with the black rain within half an hour. "It was raining heavily and greasy," he said. The children wore short sleeves and shorts, their bodies were black, and the taro in the field was also sparkling.
Seventy years later, local survivor Toyoko Matsumiya donated her shirt to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, which still detects radioactive materials such as cesium-137. It was a shirt to wear in gym class. The 16-year-old girl, who sat in a classroom at a girls' high school and was trapped in the rubble after the explosion, remembers the black rain seeping down and wetting her clothes.
She scrubbed her shirt with a washing board several times, but the dark spots left by the radiation stubbornly did not go. 70 years later, Professor Kiyoshimo of Radiation Physics at Hiroshima University detected nuclear radiation on the shirt.
A mushroom cloud formed after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Beginning that day, Masaaki Takano's family developed diarrhea, high fever and other symptoms. Nuclear dust and black rain fell on the land and plants, on the rivers where the inhabitants fetched water, and later on radiation-related diseases, including cancer and cataracts. Masaaki Takano's mother died of stomach cancer in her 50s, and many of the neighbors died early.
In 1976, the government enacted relief measures for atomic bomb survivors, which allowed victims to receive a monthly stipend of $300. But recipients of the grant must meet the conditions set by the government, and they need to provide medical certificates linking the disease to the nuclear explosion, within 2 kilometers of the blast zone within two weeks of the explosion in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, in close contact with at least 10 survivors of radiation, or in officially designated radioactive dust zones.
Many of the black rain victims' applications were rejected, and the Takano family was among them– they did not live in this "designated area" at the time. They expressed their dissatisfaction. In December 1980, Seiji Kaya, then president of the University of Tokyo, presided over the "Roundtable on Basic Issues concerning Countermeasures for Atomic Bomb Victims," after which members presented to the government a principle of compensation, namely, that "there should be a sufficient basis for the additional designation of areas affected by atomic bombs."
Under this principle, the conditions for the identification of the former victims continue to be implemented, and many terminally ill victims of black rain cannot be compensated. As time went on, chronic diseases such as cancer in survivors became increasingly difficult to link to radiation — so that elderly people with deteriorating health had to fight on both fronts, treating the disease and proving the cause.
In the lawsuit launched in 2015, a 79-year-old plaintiff who suffered from lymphatic inflammation in his arm four years after the explosion and then suffered a stroke; another 82-year-old who had stomach cancer, bowel cancer and heart problems in recent years, returned to court to testify, "I can't silently watch my friends from elementary school die one by one." He said.
Director Masahira Imamura filmed the film Black Rain in 1982, which tells the life of a woman in Hiroshima who has been drenched in black rain.
"I want the truth to be recognized," Takano said.
Among the elements that keep koya's villages out of compensation is a map called "Utada Rain Zone". The map was drawn a month after the atomic bombing by a meteorological observer named Utada — an elliptical area centered on a nuclear explosion site.
The map was only questioned more than 40 years later. In 1983, retired meteorological researcher Nobuyoshi Masuda began investigating the black rain in Hiroshima. He began to collect the records and memoranda of that year, looking for clues to the black rain.
The results of the investigation far exceeded his expectations, and many locals called to say that they had also been exposed to the black rain. In June 1987, they held a public hearing at Sōto Elementary School in Zobo City, Hiroshima Prefecture. The meeting, which was expected to be attended by twenty or thirty people, eventually came more than 200 people, and even the questionnaire was not enough.
The results of Masuda's findings differ from Utada's. There was not much rain in the core area of the explosion – there was no rain in areas with strong convection, and there was precipitation in the nearby horseshoe-shaped area. After two field surveys, Nobuyoshi Masuda found that the area of black rain was at least four times that of the Utada Rain Zone, and he called this newly designated area the "Masuda Rain Zone."
Every year on August 6, successive prime ministers meet with atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima. In August 1987, when Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone met with atomic bomb victims, some atomic bomb victims briefed him on the "Masuda Rainy Area" and asked him whether the reports were in line with "sufficient scientific and reasonable grounds." Nakasone replied, "If there is a scientific and reasonable basis, I don't mind expanding the designated area. ”
A student shirt full of radiation spots donated by Toyoko Matsumiya
Later, Professor Kiyoshi Shima collected samples of sand in these areas, and the sand in this horseshoe-shaped area had different degrees of radiation, which proved The conclusion of Nobuyoshi Masuda. "I want to expose the facts as much as possible," said Kiyoshi Shima, whose grandfather was killed in an atomic bomb blast and who was also exposed to radiation when he entered the city center shortly after the nuclear blast.
Today, the achievements of Kiyoshimo and Masuda Nobuyoshi are recognized by the court. The Hiroshima District Court said in its judgment that the 84 plaintiffs, who suffered from radiation after the atomic bombing, deserved the same benefits as other atomic bomb victims. The judgment ordered the city and county governments to provide the plaintiffs with proof of "atomic bomb victims" and to grant Medicaid, worth about $300 a month.
At a news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government had not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling. "We will conduct a detailed review of the judgment by various ministries, Hiroshima Prefecture and Hiroshima City to decide on further action," he said.
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