Plaintiffs seeking to be acknowledged as victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Monday appealed a local court ruling denying them official recognition and making them ineligible for special government assistance.
The appeal was filed by 151 plaintiffs who say they were within 12 km of ground zero when the bomb was dropped Aug. 9, 1945.
In the Feb. 22 ruling by the Nagasaki District Court, 10 of 161 plaintiffs in the group received recognition as survivors that entitled them to full compensation by the government, including medical assistance.
The plaintiffs in the suit were outside the oval-shaped government-designated zone stretching around 7 km from east to west and about 12 km north to south.
The district court said only the 10 plaintiffs could be determined to have received radiation exposure high enough to qualify for compensation.
In a similar suit, the Nagasaki court rejected a demand by 395 other plaintiffs in 2012 seeking official hibakusha status, prompting them to appeal to the Fukuoka High Court. The high court will hand down its ruling on that case March 28.
