Japan atomic bomb survivors

A significant body of data defines the relationship between radiation dose and cancer incidence. This dataset is primarily from a study of the atomic bomb survivors from Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan but also includes data from animal studies and other sources of information. While additional data are continuously collected and... 

A great deal was learned from the atomic bomb survivors. The US military dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and a second on Nagasaki, Japan, three days later. The bombs used two different types of radioactive material, 235U in the first bomb and 239Pu in the second. It is estimated that... 

Beebe, G.W., Kato, H., and Land, C.E. (1978b). Life Span Study Report Mortality Experience of Atomic Bomb Survivors, 1950-74, RERF TR 1-77 (Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan). 

ICHIMARU, M., ISHIMARU, T., AND Belskv J.L. (1978). Incidence of leukemia in atomic bomb survivors belonging to a fixed cohort in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1950-71. Radiation dose, years after exposure, age at exposure, and type of leukemia, Japan J. Radiat. Res. 19,262. 

It is of note that this considerable reliance on laboratory animal data for risk assessment purposes for enviromnental chemicals is in sharp contrast to the situation with ionizing radiation. The cancer risk estimates for ionizing radiation (X rays and y rays) are based to a very great extent on human tumor data obtained from the Life Stage Study (LSS) of the atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan... 

Years later, I learned another chapter in her sad story. Her engagement was broken by the family of her fiance because they feared the stigma of bringing into the family a hibakusha, an atomic bomb survivor. I would learn more about the discrimination against survivors when I returned to Japan in 1989. Fortunately for the survivors, the Japanese government had by then established effective social services for them. 

In 1974 survivors submitted drawings and sketches ot their memory ot the atomic bombing in unexpected response to a request from nhk, Japan s national broadcasting corporation. Many of these drawings, done three decades after the event, were published in Unforgettable Fire Pictures Drawn by the Atomic Bomb Survivors, ed. Japan Broadcasting Corporation (nhk), trans. World Friendship Center in Hiroshima (New York Pantheon Books, 1977). All are reproduced courtesy of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. 

Japan Broadcasting Corporation (nhk), ed. Unforgettable Fire Pictures Drawn by the Atomic Bomb Survivors. English translation by World Friendship Center in Hiroshima, supervised by Howard Schonberger and Leona Row. New York Pantheon Books, 1977. 

Cogan, D. G., S. F. Martin, S. J. Kimura, and H. Ikui. Ophthalmologic Survey of Atomic Bomb Survivors in Japan, 1949 Transcripts of the American Ophthalmologic Society 48 (1950) 62. [Atom bomb-caused cataracts.]... 

Ichimaru, M., T. Ohkita, and T. Ishimaru. Leukemia, Multiple Myeloma, and Malignant Lymphoma. In Cancer in Atomic Bomb Survivors, ed. I. Shigematsu and A. Kagan. Gann Monograph on Cancer Research no. 32. Tokyo Japan Scientific Societies Press New York Plenum Press, 1986. 

Review of Forty-five Year Study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors. Japan Radiation Research Society, Chiba, Japan. Journal of Radiation Research 32, suppl. (1991). 

Level III applies only to prospective cohort studies, which involve decades-long medical follow-ups of large study populations. For example, the Nurses Health Studies have been investigating possible health effects of oral contraceptives by following cohorts totaling 238,000 female nurses since 1976. The two cohorts of atomic bomb survivors and their descendants, one at Hiroshima and the other at Nagasaki, Japan, have been followed continuously since shortly after the end of World War II. 

Leukaemia was the first cancer to be linked with exposure to radiation from the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Excess relative risk for leukaemia was higher than for any other neoplasm in bomb survivors and for people exposed as children. Radiation-related leukaemia started to occur two to three years after the bombing, reached its peak within six to eight years, and has declined steadily since then. For people exposed as adults, the excess risk was lower than that of people exposed as children, but the excess risk appears to have persisted throughout the followup period (LARC, 2000). Small increases in childhood leukaemia may also have occurred in some populations that were exposed to... 

The decision to use the atomic bomb has been vigorously debated over the years. It brought a quick end to the war and avoided many casualties that a land invasion of Japan would have cost. However, the civilians who were killed by the bomb and the survivors who developed radiation sickness left an unforgettable legacy of fear. The... 

Effects on humans are separated into deterministic effects caused by severe exposures to high doses and stochastic effects (mostly cancer) caused by much lower exposures. Data on deterministic effects come from side effects of radiotherapy, exposure of the early radiobiologists, atomic bomb effects in Japan, and a few severe accidents. Data on stochastic effects are mostly based on epidemiological studies on the survivors of the atomic bomb detonations in Japan, on patients exposed to medical treatments, and on industrial exposures to workers. Animal studies are also used to evaluate human effects. 

I was about to undertake had I known Dr. Tsuzuki s background. I suppose it was concern about security that had discouraged Dr. Warren from providing that information. I did not know that it was Dr. Tsuzuki who had mobilized an immediate research program by Japanese doctors working with the survivors of the atomic bomb attacks. I did not see the excellent report of the Japanese doctors until I returned to Japan in 1989. ... 

In 1974, when nhk, Japan s national broadcasting corporation, requested survivors of the atomic bomb to submit drawings of what they recalled about their experience in 1945, an unexpected number of responses followed. These poignant drawings drew so much attention that they were published in a book. Unforgettable Fire. Even after three decades, several drawings reflect the survivors deeply etched memories of what happened to their children. A few of these illustrations were selected for our narrative. 

The Atomic Bomb Voices from Hiroshima, ed. Kyoko Shelden and Mark Shelden. Armonk, N.Y. M. E. Sharpe, 1989. [A collection on the nuclear holocaust expressed by the survivors as well as some of Japan s most distinguished writers and artists.]... 

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