The Daily Manila Shimbun

 

Damages Claims Nixed for Ex-Fishermen over Bikini Radiation

July 22, 2018



Kochi- Kochi District Court on Friday rejected a claim filed by former Japanese fishermen and bereaved family members for state compensation over records of radiation exposure from 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

In the lawsuit, 45 plaintiffs in Kochi Prefecture, western Japan, mostly crew members of a tuna fishing boat, sought a total of some 65 million yen in state compensation, claiming that they lost an opportunity to recover their health after the Japanese government hid the records in question.

It was the first ruling issued over lawsuits filed in Japan to seek state compensation over the Bikini Atoll radiation, according to the plaintiffs.

They claimed that the Japanese government hid the records intentionally for some 60 years until it released them in 2014.

But Presiding Judge Osamu Nishimura said it cannot be concluded that the government concealed the records on purpose.

When the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in 2016, their right to demand compensation had expired under Japan's Civil Code, the judge said.

Still, the court recognized that all but one of the former crew members were exposed to radiation from the U.S. bomb tests.

The need for relief measures for the crew members should be considered afresh by the legislature and the government, the judge said.

The United States conducted six hydrogen bomb tests on or near Bikini Atoll in 1954. On March 1, in that year, 23 crew members of the Fukuryu Maru No. 5 fishing vessel from Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, were exposed to radiation from the tests. One of them died six months later.

In 1955, the United States agreed to pay some 2 million dollars mainly as consolation money to end compensation negotiations with Japan.

The Japanese government initially denied the existence of radiation dose data for ships other than the Fukuryu Maru No. 5. Later, however, it was learned that such records did exist for a total of 556 ships and their crews operating in waters near the atoll. Jiji Press