Japan grants health benefits to A-bomb 'black rain' victims

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has decided to grant official medical benefits to 84 Hiroshima residents who were exposed to highly radioactive “black rain” after the city’s atomic bombing

TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday he has decided to grant official medical benefits to 84 Hiroshima residents who were exposed to highly radioactive “black rain” after the city's atomic bombing. Suga's decision ends a long legal battle by the central government that delayed medical aid for the “black rain” victims, who were outside a government-set boundary used to decide survivors’ eligibility for medical care. On July 14, the Hiroshima High Court upheld a lower court’s decision that the 84 are eligible for the same benefits as other atomic bomb survivors who were inside the boundary and ordered the government to certify their applications for state health care benefits. “I have carefully thought about the ruling, and I believe that the 84 plaintiffs should be helped under the atomic bombing survivors' compensation law and its philosophy," Suga told reporters after meeting with Hiroshima's governor and mayor. “I have decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court."