BY Shinya Ajima and Mariko Umeoka

NAGASAKI, Aug. 3 Kyodo, The Japanese government has come under growing pressure to be more flexible in supporting foreign survivors of the August 1945 U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The government began in 2001 to study how to treat A-bomb victims living abroad as most of them had been unable to benefit from Japanese relief measures. The authorities have mapped out programs to medically or financially support them, but in many cases not aggressively so.

Many victims, their families and supporters have had to wait for a lengthy legal process in Japan and have expressed discontent with government's rigid position.

Between July 20 and 24, a team of Japanese physicians visited a welfare facility in Hapchon, South Korea, to conduct health checks and counseling on radiation victims there, the first time Japanese doctors went abroad to treat foreign A-bomb survivors.

The team was sent by the Nagasaki prefectural and city governments as part of a program by the central government to support about 5,000 registered radiation victims living abroad, including some 2,200 South Koreans. Among others are North Koreans, Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the United States and Brazil.

Most of foreign radiation victims were in Japan at the time of the bombings as prisoners of war or forced laborers.

Hiroshima prefectural and city governments conduct similar healthcare programs on a regular basis in North and South America.

''The visit to South Korea was aimed at relieving A-bomb survivors' concerns, and we were able to get some satisfactory outcomes,'' Toru Shukuwa, a Nagasaki prefectural government official, said.

But the effectiveness of the program is already called into question.

The medical team treated 70 people living in the facility, about 3 percent of all South Koreans recognized as A-bomb survivors by the South Korean Red Cross Society.

Although Nagasaki Prefecture says it plans to provide similar services to some 100 other victims by next March, Shukuwa admits, ''It will take roughly 10 years to check all of them if we are to keep the current pace.''

A legal constraint adds to a view that the healthcare program might be impractical.

Doctors in the team can only provide simple individual consultations for patients because Japanese doctors are forbidden from conducting medical practices in South Korea.

''We have to admit that is something we cannot overcome,'' Shukuwa said, adding they are going to study a more effective form of assistance after the planned second visit.

But such a view is greeted by a backlash from victims' families and their supporters.

''We have no more time to waste, but the government is always slow to take action. Most of the radiation victims in South Korea are turning 70, 80 or older and are dying like Mr. Choi Gye Chol,'' said Nobuto Hirano, a representative of a nationwide group of Japanese born to A-bomb victims.

Hirano, 57 , was referring to a South Korean man who died on July 25 at age 78 while awaiting a Japanese court ruling on his case over medical allowances granted by the government to A-bomb survivors both inside and outside Japan.

Choi was exposed to radiation on Aug. 9, 1945, in Nagasaki where he was a construction worker, three days after the attack on Hiroshima.

In 1980, the government granted Choi the right to receive the medical benefits but later it declared it void when he returned to South Korea.

A Japanese court in 2002 ordered the government to pay allowances to survivors living in Japan and abroad alike.

Although Choi was then already suffering ill health, the Nagasaki municipal government demanded he come to Japan again to have his allowances reinstated, dismissing an application by his supporters acting on his behalf.

Choi sued the city government in February seeking to overturn its decision. The Nagasaki District Court is scheduled to hand down its ruling on Sept. 28 without the plaintiff.

Choi was not able to be hospitalized until days before his death because he did not have enough money. The supporters blame the government, saying its rigidity killed the father of six children.

''It is ridiculous,'' Hirano said. ''The allowances are for those suffering poor health. But the government demanded the visit by the man, who was not able to travel due to poor health.''

At a recent symposium held in Tokyo by people born to A-bomb survivors, Lee Tae Chae, a senior member of a South Korean group of second generation victims, said, ''The Japanese government seems to be waiting until all South Korean victims die off.''

Meanwhile, on the treatment of the second generation victims, Japanese and South Korean groups have enhanced their cooperation in a fight against the Japanese government over the past few years.

On July 26 they submitted a petition to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, calling for more measures to improve medical and welfare support, such as more frequent and thorough health checks.

The government provides financial and medical benefits to A-bomb victims, who are strictly defined under the Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law.

Under the law, however, both Japanese and foreigners born to the victims cannot receive aid unless they were in the womb at the moment of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hirano said that even if the government conducts medical treatment for the second generation, victims must pay the travel costs themselves to take free but very simple checks of blood and blood pressure. They can also consult with a doctor, but there is no testing for cancer stemming from possible radiation exposure in the womb.

The exact number of second-generation victims is unknown, according to Hirano, who said that as far as the Japanese are concerned, they were born to a roughly estimated 300,000 parents.

Researchers have noted the second generation can develop health problems such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and hardening of the arteries because of the radiation.

But a Japan-U.S. research organization, Radiation Effects Search Foundation, says it needs more time to reach a definitive conclusion on hereditary factors concerning radiation effects between mothers and babies.

''All defects in the environment surrounding A-bomb survivors and their offspring represent the government's tendency to delay essential but costly works,'' Hirano said. ''After all, this country has yet to complete its sincere and deep reflection on the war even though 59 years have passed.''

2004-08-03 08:46:34JST