Hibakusha

Hibakusha (被爆者) is the term widely used in Japan referring to victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As of March 31, 2007, there were 251,834 living hibakusha certified by the Japanese government, with an average age of 74.6. The Japanese word translates literally to "explosion-affected people". Almost all live in Japan, but several thousand bomb survivors live in Korea and elsewhere.

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (Nihon Hidankyo), is a group formed by hibakusha in 1956 with the goals of pressuring the Japanese government to improve support of the victims and lobbying governments for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Law
The Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law defines hibakusha as people:
 * 1) who were within a few kilometers of the hypocenters of the bombs,
 * 2) who were within 2 km of the hypocenters within two weeks of the bombings,
 * 3) who were exposed to radiation from fallout, and
 * 4) babies carried by pregnant women in any of these categories.

Hibakusha are entitled to government support; they receive a certain amount of allowance per month. They and their children were (and still are) victims of severe discrimination due to lack of knowledge about the consequences of radiation sickness, which people believed to be hereditary or even contagious. About 1%, certified as suffering from bomb-related diseases, receive a special medical allowance.

Each year, on the anniversaries of the bombings, lists of the names of hibakusha whose deaths have been recorded in the previous year are added to the cenotaphs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As of August 2007, the death tolls stand at 253,008 at Hiroshima, and 143,124 at Nagasaki.

Book
Studs Terkel's book The Good War has a conversation with two Hibakusha. The postscript observes:


 * "There is considerable discrimination in Japan against the hibakusha. It is frequently extended toward their children as well: socially as well as economically. "Not only hibakusha, but their children, are refused employment," says Mr. Kito. "There are many among them who do not want it known that they are hibakusha."

External links and references

 * White Light/Black Rain Official Website (film)
 * Voice of Hibakusha "Eye-witness accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima"
 * Hibakusha, fifteen years after the bomb (CBC TV news report)
 * Virtual Museum "Hibakusha testimonies, coupled with photographs, memoirs and paintings, give a human face to the tragedy of the A-bombing. Starting in 1986, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation initiated a project to record hibakusha giving testimonies on video. In each year since, the testimonies of 50 people have been recorded and edited into 20-minute segments per person"
 * http://hibakusha.hyoho.com/
 * The Voice of Hibakusha
 * Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission ([[ABCC])]
 * Radiation Effects Research Foundation website

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