Forum discusses better support for nuclear-bomb victims
Aug. 4, Kyodo - An international conference hosted by one of Japan's main groups opposing nuclear weapons discussed Wednesday how better to support victims of the atomic bombings in Japan and nuclear tests in various parts of the world.In a workshop held on the second day of the three-day annual conference of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo), A-bomb victims talked about the discrimination they and their children have suffered due to the effects of exposure to radiation and rapped the Japanese government for not providing enough support for them.
Participants from the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakstan, where about 500 nuclear tests were conducted by the former Soviet Union between 1949 and 1989,
and a U.S. veteran who was exposed to radiation while in service near a nuclear test site, also proposed ways of getting the government to help nuclear victims.
Survivors of 1945 atomic-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki pointed out the difficulty of determining whether the diseases they contracted many years later were actually caused by their exposure to radiation from the nuclear attacks.
Larissa Ptitskaya, a senior nuclear researcher in Kazakstan, stressed the importance of submitting to the government ''precise data'' on damage caused by radiation exposure to convince it of the need to pay compensation.
U.S. veteran Anthony Guarisco urged nuclear victims to stop comparing the degree of injury and damage they have suffered with distances from the hypocenters of atomic explosions, and jointly work for improvements in their condition.
''There is not enough time for us to play the numbers game,'' Guarisco said, calling for all nuclear victims to cooperate with each other for their own benefit.
Earlier in the day, the Gensuikyo meeting called for immediate abolition of nuclear weapons, as nuclear bomb victims gave accounts of their suffering caused by exposure to radiation.
Sumiko Yamada, who experienced the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and became an orphan due to the blast, said many A-bomb victims are now dying of old age and that their ardent wish to see the world free of nuclear weapons must be realized before the next century.
Yamada, who works as a counselor for other A-bomb victims, said many old survivors are now bedridden and live in poverty and stress, and that ''time is limited'' for them.
Nelson Anjain, an official of Rongelap Island which was exposed to radiation by U.S. nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in 1954, said many islanders have had deformed babies and fallen ill with mysterious ailments, and criticized the United States for providing too little compensation.
Feat Ismailov from Kazakstan, whose 17-year-old daughter Renata suffers from deformities caused as an unborn baby by her mother's exposure to radiation when she was pregnant, said he hopes no one will have such a personal tragedy as his child has experienced.
In a videotaped message brought by Ismailov, Renata said that possession of nuclear weapons ''degrades human beings'' and that such weapons must be abandoned.
Ismailov also said that because of the constrained economic situation in the country, nuclear test victims ''remain with no support from the government.''
The Gensuikyo conference, which opened Tuesday, also discussed abolition of nuclear weapons, solidarity among victims and ways to remove and prevent military alliances in workshops later in the day.
Gensuikyo is backed by the Japanese Communist Party.
