Nagasaki

by Susan Southard

  Hirose Masahito remembered the “powerful and determined” beginnings of the antinuclear movement in Nagasaki in his 2009 interview with the author.

  Yamaguchi Senji’s recollections of the White Rose Campaign, the first conferences against atomic and hydrogen bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and his own emerging activism are detailed in Burnt Yet Undaunted, compiled by Shinji Fujisaki. Yamaguchi and other hibakusha also became involved in protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty renewal in 1960, a precursor to the still-continuing national effort by activists to safeguard the principles of peace in Japan’s constitution.

  Watanabe Chieko’s testimony appeared in Voices of the A-Bomb Survivors: Nagasaki, compiled by the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Testimonial Society.

  For Nihon Hidankyo’s founding declaration, see http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/about/about2-01.html, translated by the author.

  Taniguchi recalled his determination to “live on behalf of those who died unwillingly” during his interview on the PBS program People’s Century: Fallout (1945), broadcast June 15, 1999. His call to “bear witness” is quoted from his testimony in Hibakusha: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, translated by Gaynor Sekimori.

  ACTIVISM FOR HIBAKUSHA MEDICAL CARE

  Ongoing health effects for hibakusha, including “insufficient mental energy,” were described in the first published guidelines for the medical treatment of atomic bomb illnesses by the A-Bomb Aftereffects Research Council in 1954, as quoted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, edited by the Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, chap. 13. See also Radiation Effects Research Foundation: A Brief Description; and “Cancer Takes Many Forms Among the Hibakusha,” Anniston Star (Alabama), September 13, 1981, reprinted in Beijin kisha no mita Hiroshima Nagasaki [Hiroshima and Nagasaki Through the Eyes of American Reporters], Akiba Project 1981 (Hiroshima: Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation, 1982).

  Quotations by Yamaguchi Senji: For Nagasaki Hisaikyo as “an organization to voice our demands” and the health care law’s “little handbook,” see Burnt Yet Undaunted, compiled by Shinji Fujisaki. His call for the Japanese government to take responsibility for hibakusha care is quoted from his interview in Steven Okazaki’s film White Light/Black Rain. Yamaguchi’s 1980 speech appealing for “No More Hibakusha” is quoted in “The Atomic Bomb and the Citizens of Nagasaki” by Sadao Kamata and Stephen Salaff, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 14:2.

  The Atomic Bomb Victims Medical Care Law: Application requirements are quoted from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, edited by the Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, chap. 11. For the issue of “probability of causation,” see “Certification of Sufferers of Atomic Bomb–Related Diseases,” Nuke Info Tokyo 131, http://cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit131/nit131articles/abombdisease.html. Additional sources for hibakusha medical care and health care activism include Report on the Problem of the Hibakusha by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations; “The Atomic Bomb and the Citizens of Nagasaki” by Sadao Kamata and Stephen Salaff, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 14:2; and “The Hibakusha: The Atomic Bomb Survivors and Their Appeals” by Shinji Takahashi in Appeals from Nagasaki: On the Occasion of SSD-II and Related Events.

  For the development of atomic bomb radiation dosimetry for Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, see “Historical Review” by George D. Kerr, Tadashi Hashizume, and Charles W. Edington in U.S.-Japan Joint Reassessment of Atomic Bomb Dosimetry in Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Dosimetry System 1986, edited by William C. Roesch; and Ichiban: The Dosimetry Program for Nuclear Bomb Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—A Status Report as of April 1, 1964 by J. A. Auxier. See also Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century by J. Samuel Walker.

  For a recent study suggesting “significant exposure” for early entrants, see “Gamma-Ray Exposure from Neutron-Induced Radionuclides in Soil in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Based on DS02 Calculations” by Tetsuji Imanaka et al., in Radiation and Environmental Biophysics 47:3. For a review of current research on the impact of residual radiation, see “Workshop Report on Atomic Bomb Dosimetry—Residual Radiation Exposure: Recent Research and Suggestions for Future Studies” by George D. Kerr et al., Health Physics 105:2. doi: 10.1097/HP.0b013e31828ca73a.

  Claims of injuries, deaths, and lingering medical conditions from residual radiation exposure appear in multiple survivor accounts. See especially “Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Messages from Hibakusha,” http://www.asahi.com/hibakusha and the anonymous testimonies collected by a 1985 Nihon Hidankyo survey, published in The Deaths of Hibakusha, vols. 1 and 2.

  The city of Nagasaki has provided support for overseas hibakusha. See Devotion of Nagasaki to the Cause of Peace by the city of Nagasaki; and the Nagasaki Association for Hibakushas’ Medical Care (NASHIM), established in 1992 to offer travel assistance to survivors seeking to return to Japan for medical care, at http://www.nashim.org/en/index.html.

  Hibakusha living in the United States have also struggled for recognition and health care. See “Medical Care for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the United States” by Stephen Salaff, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 12:1; Were We the Enemy? American Survivors of Hiroshima by Rinjiro Sodei; City of Silence by Rachelle Linner; and Steven Okazaki’s documentary film Survivors.

  Korean hibakusha: “Korea’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Victims” by Kurt W. Tong, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 23:1; and “Three-Fold Hardships of the Korean Hibakusha” by Korean Atomic Bomb Casualty Association president Choi Il Chul, available at https://afsc.org/resource/hibakusha-h-bomb-survivors. Quotations from Korean survivors: Masako Kim in Voices of the A-Bomb Survivors: Nagasaki, compiled by the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Testimonial Society; and Pak Su Ryong in Give Me Water: Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

  Taniguchi remembered the hard scar on his back that “dulled the blade” of the surgical knife in his testimony at the Nagasaki Broadcasting Company Web site, “Nagasaki and Peace,” http://www2.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp/peace. The “terrible heaviness” he felt is quoted from Voices of the A-Bomb Survivors: Nagasaki, compiled by the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Testimonial Society.

  CHAPTER 8: AGAINST FORGETTING

  RECLAIMING ATOMIC BOMB MATERIALS

  The Asahi Graph published its commemorative issue about the twenty-fifth anniversary of the atomic bombings on July 10, 1970. A preview of the issue appeared in the Asahi Shimbun on June 21, 1970. Copies provided by Taniguchi Sumiteru and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum library.

  Nippon Eiga-sha film footage: “Iwasaki and the Occupied Screen” by Erik Barnouw, Film History 2:4; and “Suddenly There Was Emptiness” in Japanese Documentary Film by Abé Mark Nornes. For the edited film with sound track, “Effect of Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 9/21/45–10/45,” and a descriptive shot list of all nineteen reels, see Video No. 342-USAF-17679, Records of U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations, 1900–2003, Record Group 342, Moving Images Relating to Military Aviation Activities, 1947–1984, National Archives at College Park, MD; digital copy available through the Online Public Access catalog (identifier 65518) at www.archives.gov/research/search.

  Watanabe Chieko described her reaction to the silent film footage of postbomb Nagasaki in her testimony at “Nagasaki and Peace,” http://www2.nbc-naga saki.co.jp/peace.

  Toshiro Ochiai described the “remember Pearl Harbor” reaction to the photo exhibition near the UN headquarters in “Participation in the First Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Disarmament: Recollections of a Student Representative,” available at http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en/00025548.

  For the recovery of the USSBS film footage, see Atomic Cover-up by Greg Mitchell; and “38 Years After Nagasaki” by Dave Yuzo Spector, Chicago Tribune, January 5, 1984. Most of the films in the Hibakusha Sources feature either the early Nippon Eiga-sha or US
SBS footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

  The return of scientific materials and autopsy specimens is detailed by M. Susan Lindee in “The Repatriation of Atomic Bomb Victim Body Parts to Japan: Natural Objects and Diplomacy,” Osiris 13, and in her book Suffering Made Real. See also the materials available through the Division of Scientific Data Registry at the Atomic Bomb Disease Institute of Nagasaki University at http://www-sdc.med.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/abcenter/index_e.html; and in the Atomic Bomb Material collection of the Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine.

  Uchida Tsukasa’s concern about the victims of the bombing disappearing “into the darkness of history” is quoted from his testimony originally published in Atomic Bomb Testimonials by Nagasaki City Employees, edited by the Nagasaki Testimonial Society, English translation provided by the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall. His vision of recording the “true extent” of their experiences appears in Testimonies of the Atomic Bomb Survivors. See also “Survivor Keeps Reminder of Destruction,” Tri-City Herald (Washington), August 6, 1995.

  The efforts by Uchida, Akizuki, and others to complete the mapping of the prebomb hypocenter area were detailed in the film Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Harvest of Nuclear War by Iwanami Productions; and in materials provided by the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Fukahori Yoshitoshi provided access to his photographic collection and described his contributions to the movement in multiple interviews.

  NAGASAKI HIBAKUSHA SPEAKING OUT

  Akizuki Tatsuichiro’s motivations to write his first memoir, his establishment of the Nagasaki Testimonial Society, and his call to hibakusha to “speak out about the realities” appeared in Natsugumo no oka [Hill Under the Summer Cloud] by Yamashita Akiko, translated into English for the author’s use. Akizuki recalled seeing an overlaid “double image” of the atomic destruction outside his modernized hospital in his testimony at “Nagasaki and Peace,” http://www2.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp/peace.

  Additional sources on the collection of Nagasaki survivor testimonies include “Nagasaki Writers: The Mission” by Kamata Sadao in Literature Under the Nuclear Cloud, edited by Ito Narihiko et al.; “The Atomic Bomb and the Citizens of Nagasaki” by Sadao Kamata and Stephen Salaff, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 14:2; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, edited by the Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, chap. 14. Yamada Kan’s comment on Dr. Nagai was quoted in “Resurrecting Nagasaki” by Chad R. Diehl, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University.

  Ongoing medical and psychological issues for survivors were recorded in multiple hibakusha accounts, as well as in RERF-published studies and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, edited by the Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the experiences of elderly parents of in utero–exposed children, see “Atomic Bomb Survivors Today” in Testimonies of the Atomic Bomb Survivors.

  Fukahori Yoshitoshi, in an interview with the author, described the foreign mayors’ shocked reactions to a Nagasaki photographic exhibit.

  For a discussion of U.S. civil defense programs that neglected the stories of the only survivors of nuclear war, see “‘There Are No Civilians; We Are All at War’: Nuclear War Shelter and Survival Narratives During the Early Cold War” by Robert A. Jacobs, Journal of American Culture 30:4.

  The Confederate Air Force’s “reenactment” of the Hiroshima bombing is described in Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields by Edward Linenthal. For Japan’s reaction, see “The Mushroom Cloud and National Psyches: Japanese and American Perceptions of the Atomic Bomb Decision—A Reconsideration, 1945–2006” by Sadao Asada in his Culture Shock and Japanese-American Relations: Historical Essays. In 2013, CBS News reported a more recent protest that forced the cancellation of a similar show; see http://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-war-ii-atomic-bomb-re-enactment-dropped-from-ohio-air-show-after-outcry.

  For international efforts by hibakusha, see the 1977 declaration, working documents, and other materials in A Call from Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Damage and Aftereffects of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, July 21–August 9, 1977: Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compiled by the Japan National Preparatory Committee. Watanabe Chieko is quoted from her testimony at the Nagasaki Broadcasting Company Web site, “Nagasaki and Peace,” http://www2.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp/peace. See also The Struggle Against the Bomb, Vol. 3: Towards Nuclear Abolition—A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1971 to the Present by Lawrence S. Wittner.

  Survivors’ stories also received limited international attention through the Hibakusha Travel Grant Program. Established in 1979 by Akiba Tadatoshi, a non-hibakusha teaching at Tufts University who would later become Hiroshima’s mayor, this program provided funds for three foreign journalists to travel to Nagasaki and Hiroshima each year for research and reporting, resulting in dozens of articles about hibakusha in local newspapers in the United States and elsewhere. These articles were reissued in a series of yearly compilations as Beijin kisha no mita Hiroshima Nagasaki [Hiroshima and Nagasaki Through the Eyes of American Reporters] and were provided to the author by the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum library.

  Quotations by Taniguchi Sumiteru: Taniguchi’s complaint against modern science for creating “highly sophisticated missiles” instead of cures is quoted from his testimony in Testimonies of the Atomic Bomb Survivors. His warning that nuclear weapons and humans cannot coexist and his appeal to audiences not to turn away from his scars are quoted from his speeches provided to the author. Taniguchi expressed his desire to speak out on behalf of the thousands who died as a result of the bombing in the film Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Harvest of Nuclear War by Iwanami Productions.

  For the worldwide proliferation of atomic weapons, see the chapter 5 notes for nuclear arsenals and testing.

  Akizuki admonished the “clever and foolish people” who still promote nuclear weapons development in Natsugumo no oka [Hill Under the Summer Cloud] by Yamashita Akiko, translated into English for the author’s use.

  Pope John Paul II’s peace appeal at Hiroshima on February 25, 1981, is available at http://atomicbombmuseum.org/6_5.shtml. For his activities while visiting Nagasaki, see “Pope Winds Up Japan Visit in Nagasaki” by Lewis B. Fleming, Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1981; and “Excerpt from Pope Commemorates Nagasaki Martyrs” by Donald Kirk, Globe and Mail (Canada), February 27, 1981.

  Yamaguchi Senji remembered his aim to “reproduce the horror” of the bombing in his 1982 speech before the United Nations in Burnt Yet Undaunted, compiled by Shinji Fujisaki; his speech is quoted from his testimony at the Nagasaki Broadcasting Company Web site, “Nagasaki and Peace,” http://www2.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp/peace. For additional information about the demonstrations at the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament, see “Throngs Fill Manhattan to Protest Nuclear Weapons” by Paul L. Montgomery, New York Times, June 13, 1982.

  For the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace (NFPP): Devotion of Nagasaki to the Cause of Peace by the city of Nagasaki; Natsugumo no oka [Hill Under the Summer Cloud] by Yamashita Akiko; newsletters and other materials provided by the NFPP; and the author’s interview with Matsuo Ranko, assistant section chief, NFPP.

  Do-oh reflected on her retirement, her return to Nagasaki following her mother’s death, and her cancer diagnosis and treatment in her essay “Ikasarete ikite” [Allowed to Live, I Live] in a collection by the same name, edited by Keisho bukai (Do-oh Mineko iko shuu) henshu iinkai [Legacy Group (Do-oh Mineko Posthumous Collection) Editorial Committee], translated into English for the author’s use. In his interview with the author, Matsuzoe Hiroshi described his reunion with Do-oh and provided color photocopies of his paintings depicting her experience.

  For more information on Mayor Motoshima’s controversial comments about the emperor and the assassination attempt on the mayor, see City of Silenc
e by Rachelle Linner; “Resurrecting Nagasaki” by Chad R. Diehl, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University; “Mayor Who Faulted Hirohito Is Shot” by David E. Sanger, New York Times, January 19, 1990; and “Japanese Responsibility for War Crimes” by Iwamatsu Shigetoshi, Keiei to Keizai 71:3.

  Protests against nuclear ships: “Japan Under the U.S. Nuclear Umbrella” by Hans M. Kristensen for the Nautilus Institute; and Yamaguchi Senji’s recollection of the hibakusha protest against the USS Rodney M. Davis in Burnt Yet Undaunted, compiled by Shinji Fujisaki; see also “Nuclear Foes Protest U.S. Ship in Nagasaki,” Times Daily (Alabama), September 17, 1989.

  Leukemia and other cancer incidences: Children of the Atomic Bomb by Dr. James N. Yamazaki; and the multiple reports on “Cancer Incidence in Atomic Bomb Survivors,” Radiation Research 137:2s. See also “Long-term Radiation-Related Health Effects in a Unique Human Population,” by Evan B. Douple et al., Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 5:S1.

  COMMEMORATION AND CONTROVERSY

  Historical scholarship and debate on the use of the atomic bomb are outlined in “The Struggle Over History: Defining the Hiroshima Narrative” by Barton J. Bernstein in Judgment at the Smithsonian, edited by Philip Nobile; and “Historiographical Essay: Recent Literature on Truman’s Atomic Bomb Decision: A Search for Middle Ground” by J. Samuel Walker, Diplomatic History 29:2. For John W. Dower’s comment on the complexities of telling atomic bomb history, see “Triumphal and Tragic Narratives for the War in Asia” in Living with the Bomb, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden.

  Limited U.S. public awareness of hibakusha experiences: See Suffering Made Real by M. Susan Lindee. See also, for example, “A Tale of Two Cities,” Time, May 18, 1962. For U.S. efforts to downplay radiation effects and atomic bomb survivor narratives in order to maintain public support for nuclear programs, especially during the Cold War, see The Struggle Against the Bomb, vols. 1–3, by Lawrence S. Wittner; and “Memory, Myth and History” by Martin J. Sherwin in Hiroshima’s Shadow, edited by Kai Bird and Lawrence Lifschultz. The made-for-television movie The Day After, directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Jason Robards, shocked viewers with graphic, fictional images of nuclear annihilation in the fall of 1983. Information on the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, founded in 1980, is at http://www.ippnw.org.