Government ignores protest

Masuoka Zenko, 77, joined the army on June 15, 1945. As a 19-year-old private 2nd class, he was assigned to an artillery regiment located at the very hypocenter.

It was fortunate that Masuoka was out of town when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6. He was carrying the ashes of soldiers to a Buddhist temple in neighboring Kaida Town.

Later in the day, he walked through fires to his regiment. On his way back, he helped people who had been injured by the atomic bomb.
Feeling feverish

He carried soldiers who were still alive to a makeshift house built for the Army Hospital on the bank of the Ota River. Day and night he worked to lift bodies from the canal around the Hiroshima Castle and repair roads. He slept at the castle site and ate sweet potatoes supplied by the Army division. He drew water from a well nearby.

"I got feverish. I didn't know why. It was the midsummer and there were many fires in the wake of the atomic bombing. I thought I drank so much water that I got diarrhea," Masuoka says.

He was injured at work. He also had burns on a hand by a piece of burning iron. His fingers remain bent.

After the war, he underwent a surgery on his left eye. In 1960, he was hospitalized with colon cancer. He was in the hospital again in 1970 when he suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure. Since 1998, he was hospitalized for the treatment of prostate cancer and diabetes.

"I was healthy and robust when I entered the army. I was even commended for my good health. And now I have many scars left after medical treatments and keloids as well; I was told that this cannot be used to recognize me as Hibakusha with illnesses caused by the atomic bombing," he complains.

He twice applied for recognition as Hibakusha with A-bomb-related illnesses but the applications were rejected.

"The reason the government gave for the rejections was: 'Judging from the radioactive dose, no causal relationship is confirmed'. They twice turned down my application for the same reason."

In 2001, Nagoya University Professor Emeritus Sawada Shoji, who is studying how the low level dose of radioactivity will affect the human body from a medical point of view, analyzed the dose of residual radioactivity Masuoka has, and criticized the government for ignoring the radioactive dose one has accumulated after the person entered the A-bombed city as a cause of his/her illnesses." He submitted his dissenting opinion to the government.

Masuoka says:

"It is already two years since we submitted the scientific reason for my application, but the health and welfare ministry keeps silent about it. So I have decided to go to court. I do so not because I want money for medical treatment. I need to convince the government that residual radioactivity can be a cause of physical disorder. This is not just a personal issue. I am concerned for all Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Masuoka says. (end)