Taiwanese doctor Wang Wen-chi (王文其), 92, a survivor of the 1945 Nagasaki atomic bomb blast, finally received compensation from the Japanese government on Wednesday after more than a decade of trying.
Wang became the first and only Taiwanese to receive a “health handbook” issued to survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan during World War II. He is now entitled to free medical treatment in Japan and monthly subsidies of NT$9,000.
“I hope that there will be no more war in the world,” Wang said as he received his health handbook.
PHOTO: YU HSUEH-LAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare amended the Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law in 2003 to allow atomic bomb victims living abroad to apply for health benefits. However, the victims were still required to undergo a medical check in Japan for confirmation.
Wang applied for survivor benefits four years ago but refused to go to Japan for medical checks, accusing the Japanese government of being insincere. He was finally able to confirm his status through medical checks in Taiwan after Japan amended the law again last year. The Japanese government granted him a survivor health handbook last month.
Wang said he was a 27-year-old student at Nagasaki Medical College in 1945. While he was engaged in practical training at the school’s hospital on the morning of Aug. 9, he saw a flash of harsh red light.
He lost consciousness and was rushed to a nearby clinic operated by a Taiwanese alumnus. Despite receiving medical treatment, Wang remained paralyzed for six months. He and his family then decided to move back to his hometown of Chiayi City.
Wang said the hypocenter of the Nagasaki atomic bomb blast was right behind the hospital he had been working at, and that there were no other Taiwanese survivors at the hospital.
Even some of his fellow students who had been 15km away from the university died of radiation contamination within a few weeks, he said.
Wang remains healthy, even at his advanced age. He joked that perhaps the radiation was protecting him from other diseases.
However, Wang added, he still sets off airport metal detectors as a result of the dose of radiation he had received.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS