The city of Nagasaki will issue a special health-care certificate usually reserved for U.S. A-bomb survivors to a former Australian prisoner of war, an official said Tuesday.
A city official will visit 93-year-old hibakusha Allan Chick in Heyfield, Victoria, on June 19 to deliver the certificate, which entitles him to medical allowances.
About 10 former POWs have received the certificate from the Nagasaki Municipal Government. Chick applied for his at the Japanese Consulate General in Melbourne on April 20. He was confirmed as an atomic-bomb survivor through a list of POWs.
"We want to praise the city's prompt reaction," said Nobuto Hirano, 66, co-head of a citizens' group that supports atomic-bomb survivors abroad.
"We think it's necessary to establish a sufficient support system," he said.
Chick was sent to a prison camp in Nagasaki in 1944 after being captured in Southeast Asia. He and 23 other Australian prisoners there were exposed to radiation when a U.S. B-29 dropped the A-bomb nicknamed Fat Man on the city on Aug. 9, 1945.
Japan's surrender announcement was broadcast on Aug. 15.