Yomiuri Shimbun file photoHiroshima District CourtThe Hiroshima District Court on Wednesday ordered the Japanese government to compensate 23 relatives of three South Korean nationals who survived the atomic bomb and lived abroad. After the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, the three returned to South Korea and were excluded from Japan’s government relief programs. The plaintiffs sought damages totaling about \3.3 million, including compensation for emotional distress. This directive was scrapped in March 2003 and was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in 2007. The government argued at the trial that the bereaved families filed in June 2023 or later, more than 20 years after the directive was scrapped, and that the statute of limitations applied.