By Keiji Hirano and Janice Tang

SHIZUOKA, Japan, Feb. 28 Kyodo - Survivors of the 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll issued a new plea for the elimination of nuclear arms Saturday ahead of the 50th anniversary of the deadly experiment.

On March 1, 1954, the blast from the U.S. hydrogen bomb ''Bravo'' irradiated residents of Rongelap Island near Bikini Atoll as well as 23 crew members of the 140-ton Japanese trawler Fukuryu Maru No. 5, known as the Lucky Dragon, as they were fishing for tuna some 160 kilometers east of the test site.

At a symposium in Shizuoka City on Saturday, John Anjain, a resident of Rongelap Island, stressed the terrors of nuclear bomb experiments, saying, ''Following the hydrogen-bomb test, women on the island started giving birth to malformed or disabled children.''

''Recent U.S. Congress members are so young that they don't know much about the problems Rongelap islanders have faced,'' the 81-year-old former community leader added. ''We need to let the world know how the U.S. government caused us these hardships.''

The Marshall Islands government estimates 840 islanders from Bikini Atoll have died of health problems caused by the nuclear tests in the Pacific from 1946 to 1958. Another 1,000 islanders still suffer from conditions such as leukemia and other types of cancer.

Matashichi Oishi, a former Lucky Dragon crewman, expressed concern over the development of nuclear weapons since the Bikini Incident.

''Nuclear arms, which were in the experimental stage at the time of the Bikini Incident, have become actual weapons,'' said Oishi, 70.

Oishi had been reluctant to talk about his woes after the incident due to fears about social prejudice and discrimination against A-bomb victims.

Of the 23 crew of the trawler from Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, 12 have died, most after years of treatment for illness believed to be linked to their radiation exposure. Oishi has also suffered from health problems.

He describes his hardships particularly to children amid the ongoing strife in the world today, such as conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying, ''Somebody must tell the truth.''

Meanwhile in Tokyo, director Kaneto Shindo spoke at a screening of his 1959 film ''Daigo Fukuryu Maru'' (Lucky Dragon No. 5), emphasizing the need to abolish nuclear weapons and to continue educating youth about the devastation they cause.

''Nuclear arms have been an issue since World War II,'' the 91-year-old told an audience of over 90 people, citing this week's multilateral talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. ''They can wipe out the human race.''

Shindo, whose film is a reconstruction of the events that befell the Lucky Dragon, also criticized nuclear nations who talk about eliminating weapons but do nothing.

In the audience were Yuko Teramura, 56, and her sister Tomoko, 53. They played the young daughters of crewman Aikichi Kuboyama, who died soon after the fallout, in Shindo's film when they were 6 and 3 years old respectively.

''I believe film is the best medium to teach children about the destructiveness of nuclear weapons,'' Tomoko Teramura told Kyodo News. ''It has a greater impact than just spoken or written words.''

The Bikini Atoll hydrogen-bomb test survivors and peace campaigners plan to hold several anniversary events, such as symposiums and a civil tribunal to look into who was responsible for the Bikini Incident, starting Saturday in the cities of Shizuoka and Yaizu.

Other than the Lucky Dragon, more than 850 Japanese fishing boats were confirmed to have been irradiated following the bomb test, and health authorities ordered the disposal of 457 tons of contaminated fish.

The Bravo hydrogen bomb was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Unlike atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government never recognized the Lucky Dragon crew as victims of a nuclear bomb and has continued to exclude them from relief measures under Japanese law.

The Lucky Dragon fishermen underwent medical examinations after returning to Yaizu, but it remains unknown what happened to the crews of the other irradiated vessels. ==Kyodo