Japan's A-bomb survivors: From discrimination to Nobel Peace Prize

TOKYO - Survivors of the US atomic bombings of Japan will receive the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec 10 but, after years of anti-nuclear campaigning and showing the world their scars, they still retain the painful memories of the discrimination they have faced.

After the 1945 US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II, many people who survived the attacks were shunned by society.

Prejudice related to their exposure to radiation made it hard for them to find jobs and affected their prospects for marriage, leading one small group in Tokyo to build a communal grave where dozens were buried together.

There are around 106,800 A-bomb survivors, known as "hibakusha", in Japan, the government says. Their average age is 85.

One of them is 90-year-old Reiko Yamada, who was 11 and lived in Hiroshima when the US dropped the first atomic bomb on Aug 6, 1945, killing around 140,000 people.

That attack, and another three days later on Nagasaki where 74,000 people were killed, inflicted severe injuries and radiation-related illnesses on the survivors.

"People faced extreme discrimination" over their exposure to radiation, said Ms Yamada, who lives in Japan. She said: "In the past, people told hibakusha, 'Don't get married' or 'Don't come close. You are infectious."

Ms Yamada has helped fellow hibakusha for nearly six decades, travelling worldwide to share her experiences.