The Hiroshima prefectural government had stopped benefits for the three men under a rule that cuts off retroactive payments to atomic bomb survivors overseas beyond five years.

Hiroshima High Court Judge Yoshiro Kusano sided with the plaintiffs, ruling that "applying restrictions stops atomic bomb victims from obtaining their rights, which is remarkably unjust," Jiji Press quoted him as saying.

Overturning a lower court ruling, he ordered that the prefectural government pay a total of 2.9 million yen (24,600 dollars) in back benefits demanded by the three men.

The three plaintiffs are Shoji Mukai, 78, Teruo Hosokawa, 78 and Mitsugu Horioka, 76, who survived the world's first atomic bombing on August 6, 1945 and later immigrated to Brazil.

They returned to Hiroshima in the mid-1990s and were certified to receive the generous benefits allotted to atomic-bomb survivors.

But they returned to Brazil and were told that they could only claim five years worth of back benefits for their time overseas.

The case dates before Japan's central government, which ultimately provides the benefits for atomic bomb survivors, decided in 2001 to step up support for those living overseas.

The US bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 killed about 140,000 people, almost half the city, either immediately or in the months that followed from radiation injuries or horrific burns.

Three days later, an even more powerful nuclear bomb flattened Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered less than a week afterward.

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