Benefits reinstated to former Lucky Dragon
crew member
SHIZUOKA, Japan, Aug. 4 Kyodo - A government
committee decided Friday to reinstate insurance
benefits to a former crew member of the Fukuryu
Maru (Lucky Dragon) No. 5, a Japanese fishing
boat exposed to radiation during a 1954 U.S.
thermonuclear weapon test in the Pacific.
The decision by the Examination Committee
of Social Insurance overturns one handed
down in 1999 by the social insurance office
in Shizuoka Prefecture, where former crew
member Hiroshi Kozuka, 69, lives.
In 1998, Kozuka requested the government
reinstate sailors' insurance benefits he
received just after the nuclear test, on
the grounds he had developed hepatitis C.
He said he got the disease from a blood transfusion
he received shortly after the incident. His
condition was diagnosed in 1993.
The committee ruled that the 1999 decision
not to reinstate benefits to Kozuka was inappropriate.
''There is considerable correlation between
the sickness he suffered at the time of the
incident and the one he currently suffers,''
the committee said.
It is the first time the government has agreed
to reinstate benefits, said officials at
the Social Insurance Agency.
Kozuka received insurance benefits until
1957, after which he worked as a sailor and
farmer.
Twelve of the 23 crew members of the ship
are still alive, half of whom suffer from
various illnesses without receiving benefits
from the state.
On March 1, 1954, the 141-ton Japanese fishing
boat, operating in the central Pacific, was
covered by a cloud of radioactive ash caused
by a U.S. thermonuclear weapon test on Bikini
Atoll, some 135 kilometers to the west of
the boat.
U.S. authorities had issued a general warning
defining a danger zone around Bikini, but
no specific warning had been given as to
the timing or location of the tests.
The U.S. gave 1 million yen as a gesture
of sympathy to the widow of one crew member
who died shortly after the test.
Hiroshi Takakusaki, a senior official at
the Japan Council Against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo),
said he hopes the latest decision will prompt
the government to extend compensation to
the other crew members.
''Crew members of Lucky Dragon V received
only a little money immediately after the
incident, but they have failed to receive
further compensation.''
==Kyodo
