Japan’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected a suit filed by nearly 400 people who want to be recognised as victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing of 1945, Kyodo news agency reported. At the time of the attack, the plaintiffs were outside the oval-shaped area that Japan officially recognises as the affected zone.

The 387 complainants claimed they were within 12 km from the centre of the oval zone, which stretches around 7 km west to east and around 12 km north to south. They are not classified as survivors, or hibakusha, but as people who “experienced the bombing”.

The state-designated hibakusha are eligible for full compensation that includes medical assistance. They can get free treatment for “almost all kinds of diseases” wherever they live, a government official told AFP.

However, those who were within 12 km from ground zero but outside the affected zone get free treatment only for mental illness caused by the bombing, if they still live in Nagasaki Prefecture. There were 6,278 people in this category, according to officials.

“I’m so disappointed and dumbfounded by the top court’s decision,” 81-year-old Chiyoko Iwanaga, who led the plaintiffs, was quoted as saying. “Although we are getting old and exhausted, I will keep challenging the ruling. The truth can’t be bent.”