なぜ日本人は、嫌われるのか？

THE NEW YORK TIMES : June 16, 2001

Japan Appealing a Ruling Aiding Victims of A-Bombs
By CALVIN SIMS

TOKYO, June 15 ・The Japanese government is seeking to overturn a
court ruling early this month that provided the first compensation
for survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
who now live overseas.

The Justice Ministry said today that it had appealed a June 1 Osaka
District Court decision that ordered the local government to pay a
Korean survivor of the Hiroshima bombing $17,000 for medical care
that the prefecture had halted after he left Japan for Seoul.

Explaining the reason for the appeal, Mayumi Moriyama, the justice
minister, said that when Parliament passed the Atomic Bomb Victims
Relief Law in 1994, the legislation excluded the estimated 5,000
survivors of the bombings who live abroad.

"This is totally inhumane," said Kwak Kwi Hoon, 77, the South Korean
plaintiff, who was serving in the Imperial Japanese Army and
suffered a spinal injury during the atomic attack.

"I think Japan is dragging its feet waiting for A-bomb survivors to
die," Mr. Kwak told reporters. "We don't have much time left."

Legal experts said it could take several years for the appeal to
make its way through the courts, leaving overseas survivors, who
live mainly on the Korean Peninsula and in Brazil, with little or no
means to pay for treatment.

The current Japanese law excludes all survivors who live overseas,
both Japanese and foreigners. They are eligible for free medical
treatment and financial support if they return to Japan.

Groups representing bomb survivors in Japan and overseas said the
government's decision to contest the ruling was particularly onerous
because many victims now living abroad were forcibly brought to
Japan to serve as laborers during the country's colonial occupation
of much of Asia before World War II.

Jeong Gihwa, secretary general of the Special Committee for the
Welfare of Korean Atomic Bomb Sufferers in Hiroshima, sharply
condemned the appeal, saying the 2,000 atomic bomb victims living in
Korea would suffer greatly.

"We have been fighting a long time for support for victims residing
outside Japan, and it appears that the plight of these people is
still not understood," he said.

Tadatoshi Akiba, mayor of Hiroshima, said the appeal was "extremely
disappointing" and vowed to increase pressure on the government to
extend medical benefits to all victims regardless of their
residency. "As a city, we have been working hard to eliminate
nuclear weapons and establish world peace," he said, "but the
government must do its part to take responsibility for all victims."

The appeal today contrasted sharply with a surprise move last month
by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to let another district court
ruling stand that ordered the government to pay compensation to
leprosy patients who had been confined to sanitariums for decades
after a cure for the disease was discovered.