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Hiroshima ordered to pay bomb survivors in Brazil

Japan's highest court ordered Hiroshima's local government to settle medical backpayments to three Japanese who survived the 1945 US atomic bomb attack, but who were deprived of government benefits because they moved to Brazil, an official said on Tuesday.

Japan's Supreme Court upheld a Hiroshima High Court ruling last February ordering the local government to pay the three approximately ¥2.9 million (US$24,200) each as compensation for unpaid medical expenses, court spokeswoman Rie Ueda said.

The men -- Shoji Mukai, Teruo Hosokawa and Mitsugu Horioka, all now in their 70s -- moved to Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s under a government emigration program.

They were only provided medical care and allowances when they made the occasional visit to Japan. Once they went back to Brazil, the payments stopped, prompting the three survivors to file a lawsuit in 2002.

DISCRIMINATION

"This ruling is not a surprise," public broadcaster NHK quoted Hosokawa as saying from Sao Paolo, where he lives.

"The country discriminated unfairly against us just because we live abroad, even though we are atomic bomb victims just like the others," he said.

The lawsuit claimed they had been unjustly deprived because they moved abroad and demanded they be compensated for the years they were in Brazil.

`MISUSE OF POWER'

The Hiroshima District Court ruled in 2004 that the three could no longer demand the ¥2.9 million they were seeking as a five-year statute of limitations on survivors' right to claim unpaid medical expenses had run out.

However, the Hiroshima High Court overturned the ruling last year and ordered the local government to pay the men, reportedly arguing that applying the statute to atomic bomb survivors was a "misuse of power that cannot be forgiven."

SURVIVORS' COSTS

Approximately 260,000 people survived the 1945 bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including 4,000 living abroad. Bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.

Officially recognized survivors living in Japan are eligible for monthly allowances of up to about ¥140,000, free medical checkups and funeral costs.

Overseas-based survivors had been excluded until a change in government policy in 2003.
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