After dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, killing between 100,000 and 200,000 civilians, top U.S. government officials lied to the media and Congress, claiming there was “no radioactive residue” in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that Japanese reports of deaths due to radiation were “propaganda.”
The U.S. general overseeing the nuclear program told Congress that Japanese civilians did not face “undue suffering,” insisting that it was in fact “a very pleasant way to die.”
This information was revealed by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
On August 8, the archive published declassified documents exposing this shocking history. The archive wrote:
‘The head of the [Manhattan] project, Gen. Leslie R. Groves, was so worried about public revulsion over the terrible effects of the new weapon – which a Navy report later in 1945 called “the most terrible agent of destruction known to man” – that he cut off early discussion within the MED of the problem. Later, he misleadingly told Congress there was “no radioactive residue” in the two devastated cities. In doing so, he contradicted evidence from his own specialists whom he had sent to Japan to investigate. Groves even insisted that those who had been exposed to radiation from the atomic explosions would not face “undue suffering. In fact, they say it is a very pleasant way to die.”’
The New York Times echoed these falsehoods on behalf of the U.S. government, publishing an article on September 13, 1945 titled “No radioactivity in Hiroshima ruin.”
In this case, the newspaper of record was repeating the lies of another top U.S. official, Brig. Gen. T. F. Farrell, chief of the War Department’s atomic bomb mission. Like Groves, Farrell ignored his own medical experts and publicly denied that Japanese civilians were dying of radioactive fallout.
Dr. James N. Yamazaki, at the age of 33 in 1949, was the lead physician of the U.S. Atomic Bomb Medical Team assigned to Nagasaki to survey the effects of the bomb. Dr. Yamazaki, today in his 90s, continues to monitor “the children of the atomic bomb” and to write and to speak out on behalf of a humankind facing nuclear destruction.
In his website “Children of the Atomic Bomb”, published by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Yamazaki writes:
What is an Atomic or Nuclear Bomb?
A general name given to any weapon in which the explosion results from the energy released by a reaction involving atomic nuclei, either by fission—of uranium or plutonium; or, fusion—of a heavier nucleus with two lighter hydrogen ones. Thus, the A-for atomic bomb, and the H, for hydrogen bomb are both nuclear weapons. In the history of the modern world as we know it, the atomic bomb was only used once to kill human beings: it was dropped on the Japanese people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Two Cities, One Destiny
On 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, followed seventy-six hours later on August 9 by the detonation of the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb over Nagasaki.
In a blinding, searing flash of light, one bomber and one bomb instantly blasted the two cities to rubble. The great difference between the devastation of the two cities was a result of the different topography. Hiroshima was on a low flat delta interlaced by seven tributary rivers; Nagasaki was divided by a mountain spur into two distinct valleys.
In Hiroshima, the bomb exploded over the center of the city, destroying everything in a one-mile radius. In Nagasaki, the bomb was detonated in an industrial valley flanked by a mountain spur so that the total destruction took place within a half a mile that shielded the major business and residential districts. Yet the more powerful Nagasaki bomb of 20 kiloton (TNT equivalent) compared to the 15 kiloton Hiroshima bomb caused a far greater radius of damage than in Hiroshima.
The Human Toll
The nature of an atomic explosion explains the magnitude of the human casualties in the immediate and delayed aftermath. A measure of the enormity of the energy released by atomic weapons is that the light of the bomb in brightness is comparable to the sun, and the temperatures and pressure are comparable to those in the sun’s interior. The light rays consist of thermal radiation that burns the cities and bodies and nuclear radiation that penetrates the body.
In the immediate aftermath, a quarter to a third of the population was killed by burns, trauma or radiation, or by a combination of these. The principal delayed effects of radiation concern the development of cancer, especially among those exposed in early childhood compared to adults; the brain damage to the fetus born to mothers exposed to the atomic bomb; and the genetic effects to the children born to the survivors.
Children of the Atomic Bomb Survivors
Seventy thousand new-borns were examined in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Nagasaki, 500-800 babies were examined in their homes. No evidence of genetic injuries were detected at that time. But today, in 2008, new studies done on survivors and their offspring are revealing conclusive DNA genetic changes and malformations. These studies utilize newer modalities to detect DNA injuries. The children of survivors, now adults, are concerned how genetic damage from the bomb may be transmitted to their children through generations.
Aside from the physical injury and radiation the most significant effect of the atomic bomb was the sheer terror which it struck into the citizens of these bombed cities. Such terror, unprecedented in humankind, was etched forever onto the bodies and minds of the persons who experienced it.
The tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not just Japan’s, but it is the world’s. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all nations to prevent another nuclear disaster for the safety and well-being of all our children.
Today: 159,000 Hiroshimas!
Today, the U.S. nuclear stockpile contains 2,400 megatons, the equivalent to 159,000 Hiroshimas! An enormous nuclear caldron simmers that adds fire to current threats of global warming and changes in our water, atmosphere, and the delicate human, animal, and food chain through which we are all interlinked.
(Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. Courtesy: Multipolarista.)
