politics

Gov't appeals court order to recognize 'black rain' victims

26 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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26 Comments
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I really don’t understand why the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki get special treatment. Sure it was a horrific incident but really any worse than the fire bombing of Tokyo?

-27 ( +1 / -28 )

Mr KiplingToday  06:53 am JST

I really don’t understand why the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki get special treatment. Sure it was a horrific incident but really any worse than the fire bombing of Tokyo?

really? You don’t understand why survivors of atomic bombs may need medical treatment that others don’t require?

20 ( +21 / -1 )

Why doesn't the government just accept that the original boundaries were wrong and pay the victims. This churlish fight to save a few pennies is disgusting.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

@Mr Kipling

i don’t understand why you don’t understand.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

Churlish indeed, penny-pinching and utterly deaf to public opinion.

Do the current regime really believe they’re so completely immune to electoral damage?

Maybe they are...,

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Disgraceful.

For once, look after your people and not your wallet Abe.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Infinite swill for the troughs, though.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Same as the government's reluctance to pay compensation for Minamata disease (both Kumamoto and Niigata), Hansen's Disease, Itai-Itai, Yokkaichi Asthma, and a host of other cases such as wrongful imprisonment.

It's just not in the DNA her.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

It's just not in the DNA her.

No, there are many Japanese people just as disgusted by this appeal as the rest of the world.

This isn't really about the Hibakusha or the money; it's about Japanese courts recognizing that the governments which controlled the country during the war(s) bear responsibility for what happened to the people by their incompetent management and refusal to surrender. The LDP are terrified of any decision which even hints at government responsibility.

Citizens groups in both Nagoya and Tokyo have attempted to sue the government for both starting the war and not ending it in timely fashion. They have lost every time.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-firebombing-idUST13538620070310

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Readers, especially those overseas, should understand that these people are motivated by the principle. Courts in Japan do not award large compensation payments. I doubt they even get their legal fees.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Why would you not want to extend generosity to possible victims? These people are treated as if they are trying to cheat the government.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Many in the national government want to honor the souls of the men who led Japan to war at Yasukuni - alongside those of millions of unwilling victims - but the government wants to avoid taking responsibility for what those men ultimately brought upon the people of their own country. It's mind-blowing.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Interesting that JT omits Abe's comment to reporters about this (included in the Japan Times article):

“Since the (Hiroshima court’s) decision is different from successive Supreme Court rulings, the decision was made to appeal,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/08/12/national/crime-legal/japan-fights-hiroshima-black-rain-ruling/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=72&pnespid=ZdZsiku8fT4AXxcKbEVO_t2kZQH4HPs8BdwG

Sure it's not anything earthshaking, but for some people it is of interest, and in any case it's usual protocol to report on what the country's leader has to say about such government decisions. Not including the comment may indicate a bias, which would be in-line with why certain posts which reveal such things as deep relations between organized crime and the LDP are deleted.

Also interesting that people here generally understand how this is egregious, yet don't feel those who were worked to the bone as forced labor during the war should be compensated...lost in the shuffle regarding the 1965 agreement is that the South Korean president at the time (Park Chung-hee) was a former imperial soldier for Hirohito who went by the name Takagi Masao (高木正雄) and used the funds received in the agreement for his own projects, not for the laborers.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Sure it was a horrific incident but really any worse than the fire bombing of Tokyo?

An horrific "incident"?

It was a deliberate genocidal experiment, the legacy and effects of which last up until today.

That doesn't negate the terrors of what was done to Tokyo, either.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I really don’t understand why the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki get special treatment. 

This story focuses on the main way the hibakusha differ to firebombing victims, health problems due to radiation exposure. In this context, they are definitely special.

Conventional weapons do all of the other things that atomic bombs do, destroying, burning, killing and maiming, and I would hope people come away from the peace parks with renewed drive to oppose their use too, not just atomic weapons.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Others above have said it well,

Japanese govts over the decades simply refuse to accept anything that may cast them in a bad light, no matter how minor the case - and this case is not minor.

In all my years here I've never heard an LDP leader(s) admit wrongfulness on anything.

There are always excuses with the now classical cop-out "We will work to seek the understanding of the people" often blurted.

This case of the Hibakusha - or the "When is a Hibakusha not a Hibakusha? When the Govt alone decides" - should just be finalized quickly. The money is insignificant.

Show a little sense of humanity instead of letting elitist pride dictate terms - as always.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

The so-called black rain was caused by the atomic bombs. So people ill-affected by the rain, whether they were living within the city limits of Hiroshima/Nagasaki or outside, must be recognized as "hibakusha" and compensated for the damages.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

It's important to note that all damages caused by the atomic bombs are being paid by the Japanese government, which the nation takes for granted entirely, even though it was the U.S. government that dropped the bombs in violation of humanitarianism and, I think, against international law.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Wow so many - points... They are still alive 75 years later so how badly hurt were they?The horrific burns suffered by many in Tokyo and other cities get no special payments... Maybe regular boring incendiary bombs don’t get the “victim points”.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Mr. Kipling,

You must know ills caused by radiation doesn't appear soon after exposure to radiation.  It may take years for symptoms to appear.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cruelty of Abe government who ignored existence and mind of elderly Hibakusha.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It’s telling that the government here disregards its own citizens with contempt...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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