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@8 days until Hiroshima Summit: Second-generation A-bomb Survivors

by Kana Kobayashi, Staff Writer

Japan is said to have about 300,000 to 500,000 “second-generation A-bomb survivors,” the children of the A-bomb survivors. Though the genetic consequences of their parents’ atomic bombing experience haven’t been verified, they have formed groups in various places throughout Japan and made an appeal about their worries and pains from discrimination and bias toward them.

In 2017, members of “the National Association of Second-generation A-bomb Survivors” filed collective lawsuits against the Japanese government in Hiroshima and Nagasaki District Courts, claiming the failure of the government to provide assistance for second-generation survivors was unconstitutional. But all the lawsuits were rejected. Meanwhile, some local governments have set up a unique support system for them that include medical fee subsidies related to some diseases.

Koji Kikkawa from Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, and Masaharu Fukuyama from Nagasaki city, two renowned entertainers who both sing and act, are second-generation A-bomb survivors, too. As A-bomb survivors grow older, the next generation’s role has increased to pass down the horribleness of nuclear weapons to others.

(Originally published on May 11, 2023)

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