BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Japan Recognizes Victims of Radioactive ‘Black Rain’ as Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivors

The landmark ruling comes days before Hiroshima marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing.

Dozens of people who were exposed to the radioactive black rain that fell on Hiroshima hours after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945 have finally been recognized as survivors of the U.S. attack. The landmark ruling comes days before Hiroshima marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing, which killed an estimated 140,000 people. Black-rain victims have been arguing for years that they should have the same legal status and medical care as the survivors of bombing, even though they lived outside the area worst affected by the attack. On Wednesday, the Hiroshima district court ruled that 84 plaintiffs—who are all suffering from sicknesses linked to radiation exposure—are entitled to the same benefits as survivors who lived closer to where the bomb exploded. The victims, now aged between their late seventies to nineties, will now be entitled to free medical treatment. More than a dozen people who were seeking official survivor recognition have died since the suit was filed back in 2015, according to The Guardian.