Features

by Michio Shimotaka, Staff Writer

On November 22, 1994, A-bomb survivors staged a sit-in before the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims at Peace Memorial Park, located in Hiroshima City’s Naka Ward, to protest the national government’s “Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law” bill proposal, which had been submitted to Japan’s parliamentary Diet that day. The bill integrated two existing laws — the Atomic Bomb Medical Relief Law (enacted in 1957) and the A-bomb Survivors Special Measures Law (1968). In its preamble, the bill included such language as “national responsibility” and “comprehensive relief measures for A-bomb survivors across the areas of public health, healthcare, and welfare.”

Nihon Hidankyo opposes bill

Although some new measures were included in the bill, the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) stood in strong opposition. Yoshio Saito, the Nihon Hidankyo secretary-general at the time, released a comment on the same day, stating, “It is extremely regrettable for us because the bill is far removed from an A-bomb survivors aid and relief law based on national compensation, which the survivors have sought for many years.”

When it had served as an opposition party, the Japan Socialist Party had promoted legislation for a “relief law” that was repeatedly scrapped or abandoned, but the process entered a new phase in December 1993. The coalition ruling parties, including the Japan Socialist Party, which supported the administration led by non-Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, formed a project team.

The focus of the project team’s efforts concerning the bill was whether it would meet Nihon Hidankyo’s demands for “national compensation.” The Nihon Hidankyo organization had been seeking relief measure for A-bomb survivors as compensation for damages caused by the war begun by the national government. The organization also called for compensation of physical and psychological suffering experienced by A-bomb survivors and of health effects caused by exposure to A-bomb radiation, in addition to provision of compensation to bereaved families of A-bombing victims. Nihon Hidankyo aimed to use its demands as a foothold from which to seek compensation for other war damages caused by air raids and the like.

The explicit stipulation of “national compensation” was withdrawn, due to the government’s fear that it might lead to other compensation issues. In July 1994, the project team presented an outline of the bill, which included the wording “spirit of national compensation,” language that was ultimately revised to read “consideration similar to national compensation.” In October, when discussions surrounding the bill moved to a different project team addressing issues involving the 50th year since the end of the war, the LDP came up with a proposal that would include the expression of “national responsibility,” language that would ultimately appear in the bill proposed by the government.

With the bill’s preamble indicating, “In light of the fact that health effects caused by radiation resulting from the atomic bombings are unique and differ from other war damages,” the frameworks of the two former laws established with the aim of offering aid and relief to A-bomb survivors suffering health effects from exposure to A-bomb radiation were largely incorporated into the bill. Amid Nihon Hidankyo’s call for condolence money paid to those killed in the atomic bombings, the bill included a payment of 100,000 yen to those who had lost family in the atomic bombings in the form of a “special funeral allowance.”

“Major contradictions”

However, the government framed this as a “measure for A-bomb survivors who are still alive” and targeted those who had suffered the “double sacrifice” of both personal experience in the atomic bombings and the death of family members, limiting payment to holders of the Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Certificate. Others affected by the bombings, such as A-bomb orphans who avoided direct experience in the atomic bombings but had lost family members, slipped through the cracks in the bill, which Nihon Hidankyo criticized as “having major contradictions.”

On November 30, at a public hearing after the bill had been submitted to the Diet, participants raised many questions. Haruko Moritaki, 55 at the time, who is now 86 and a resident of Hiroshima’s Saeki Ward, was seated in the spectator section. Ms. Moritaki has lost her father, Ichiro, earlier that year, in January, at the age of 92. Mr. Moritaki was the first co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo and had continued his call for the elimination of nuclear weapons and the establishment of an A-bomb survivors aid and relief law based on national compensation. Ms. Moritaki said, “I felt that the Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law was not the ideal result of the years-long battle waged by A-bomb survivors.”

Tetsuo Kaneko, 76, co-chair of the Hiroshima Congress against A-and-H Bombs (Hiroshima Gensuikin), who worked alongside Mr. Moritaki, is of the same view. Mr. Kaneko said, “If Mr. Moritaki had been alive at the time, he would have considered the bill to be a sham.”

Meanwhile, the bill removed the income limit for A-bomb survivors to receive a variety of benefits such as health-care allowances. Language involving projects for building memorial facilities in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was also added, with some A-bomb survivors considering such steps to be progress. With the government and the ruling party not responding to requests for further revisions to the bill, the Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law was enacted in December that year. There were some even among the ruling Japan Socialist Party elected from districts in Hiroshima Prefecture who stood in opposition to enactment of the law.

(Originally published on May 15, 2025)