Asian student survivors of Hiroshima to be honoured

TOKYO (AFP) - Hiroshima University said on Thursday that it would bestow honorary doctorates on three former students from South-east Asia who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city.

The degrees will be given to former Brunei prime minister, Mr Pengiran Yusuf, 91, Mr Hasan Rahaya, 91, a former Indonesian parliamentarian, and Mr Abdul Razak, 87, who taught Japanese in Malaysia, the university said.

The three were among a group of students from Japanese-occupied South-east Asia studying in Japan during World War II under a programme designed to provide young foreigners with pro-Japanese education.

According to the university, they were forced to stop their studies after the western Japanese city was hit by the atomic bomb dropped by US forces, killing an estimated 140,000 people instantly.