Two Dutch men who were detained in a prison camp in Nagasaki during the war and survived the 1945 atomic bombing of the city are preparing to apply for Japanese recognition as A-bomb sufferers so they can get medical benefits, they said.
Their move has come on the heels of the legal amendment in June that allows survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima who currently live outside Japan to apply for such recognition at Japan's overseas diplomatic posts.
The two will make the applications through the Japanese Embassy in the Netherlands.
It is rare for former captives of the Imperial Japanese Army to file such applications as it has been widely believed that overseas survivors are mainly those of Japanese nationality who later moved to Brazil, or South Koreans who were brought to Japan as forced laborers later during the war.