susan@phs.UUCP (01/27/84)
4
The Legacy of Nagasaki
"Months and even years [after the bombing of Nagasaki]
physicians saw symptoms of "bomb illness": leukemia; cancers
of the breast, lung, thyroid, and salivary glads; and
cataracts. Babies irradiated _i_n _u_t_e_r_o were born with skulls
no larger than a monkey's. Some survivors, their bodies
turned to sponges as the cells deteriorated, lived on for
years. These victims are called _h_i_b_a_k_u_s_h_a; 37 years after
the bombing there are 370,000 in Japan who continue to die
slowly. Among _h_i_b_a_k_u_s_h_u, doctors have found up to five
times more physical ailments than in the rest of the popula-
tion. In Nagasaki 60% of hospital beds are filled with bomb
survivors; last year in that city 1,800 _h_i_b_a_k_u_s_h_a
died.....Many "A-bomb orphans" also have been ostracized in
this society where belonging to a family group is fundamen-
tal socially. Employers have long hesitated to hire _h_i_b_a_k_u_-
_s_h_a because of their poor physical condition. The unemploy-
ment rate for _h_i_b_a_k_u_s_h_a is two to three times the national
average.
Reprinted without permission, originally appeared in World
Press Review 30(10):53, Oct 83.
Hiroshima Bomb Yeilds More Secrets
"The latest results of the work into the Hiroshima and
Nagasaki bombs were revealed...by Warren Sinclair, of the
American Natl. Council on Radiation & Measurements. He was
speaking at the 7th International Council of Radiation
Research. Sinclair's work is the most up-to-date research
in an investigation that has continued for 38 years.
Sinclair's work is unfinished. But he has come to the prel-
iminary conclusion that, at Hiroshima, "the effects [such as
cancers] previously attributed to the neutrons now are due
to the increased gamma ray dose at the further distances."
This means, he said, that scientists have lost the knowledge
they thought they had of the long-term effects of neutron
radiation. "Thus we are thrust back...to reliance on stu-
dies in animals and other biological material."
Reprinted without permission, originally appeared in New
Scientist 99(1366):83.
I submit these articles in reply to a net.news article
recently submitted that questioned the deaths in Dresden
WWII from standard bombs vs the deaths in Japan from the
atomic bomb.
S. Feely
January 27, 1984
4