Hiroshima Peace Forum
The Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation has co-sponsored the Hiroshima Peace Forum with Hiroshima City since 2002, to offer opportunities for citizens to reconsider Hiroshima as a source of peace, to think about the A-bombing and peace, and to seek ways to take action. For this fiscal year, the forum was held six times in total, from May through July 2008, once every other Saturday.
The outline of one of the lectures on June 28, which was created based on the foundation’s record, is introduced below.
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Theme: “Effects of Radiation on Human Bodies and the Reality of A-bomb Survivors”
Lecturer: Nanao Kamata, former Director, Research Institute for Radiation Biology & Medicine, Hiroshima University.
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With respect to the demographic changes of A-bomb victims, total fatalities account
for 280,000 and survivors account for 250,000 of the 540,000 total victims, as of
March 2007. With nearly half the victims still alive, this change has not brought us any
closer to solving the problem. Since these survivors were exposed to the radiation when
they were younger, various problems, including cancer, are expected to occur in the next
10 years. Although the A-bombing is often said to be a past issue, I will venture to say,
“No way! This problem is still on the list of things we have to solve.”
Furthermore, A-bomb energy is categorized into blast, heat and radiation.
Damage to human bodies differs depending on energy type. If the energy type was heat,
the victim first sustained burn injuries, which later grew into keloids.
If the energy type was blast, the victim sustained bruises at that time and later
developed osteoarthritis of the spine, or hearing loss. Although hearing loss was not
an issue that often came up in conversation in the past, A-bomb victims have come to
have great difficulty in hearing as they age. Cataracts caused by A-bomb radiation
significantly hasten the occurrence of regular senile cataracts. Similarly, victims
with symptoms that were not exactly hearing loss but just a minor hearing problem in
those days have developed real hearing loss now. Therefore, symptoms triggered by the
A-bombing advance as the victim ages. Such a thing has become a recent issue. Moreover,
exposure to the radiation can result in abnormality of genes, resulting in cancer and cataracts.
The most serious problem for A-bomb victims is that their genes have been damaged by the radiation.
With damaged genes, victims could develop various problems, including cancer.
Since the radiation originated from above, there was no chance that it went
through the body without affecting the blood vessels and heart. That means the A-bomb
victims have most likely experienced changes in all of their organs. Some have experienced
arteriosclerosis and others sustained damage to the blood vessel epidermis.
These changes continue to affect the victims as time passes. All of their diseases have been
triggered by gene abnormalities. Every cell of A-bomb victims contains affected genes,
and this has resulted in various diseases.
Medical Effects of the A-bombing on Human Bodies
(1) What happened to A-bomb victims’ bodies through exposure to past radiation?
The effects of radiation exposure from the A-bombing on human bodies include:
① leukemia & other cancers, ② irradiation cataracts, ③ hyperparathyroidism,
④ chromosome aberration, ⑤ arrested development and growth delay,
⑥ microcephaly with mental disorder (prenatal radiation exposure), and
⑦ keloids.
With respect to cancers, including leukemia, the types of cancers clearly
caused by the radiation had numbered eleven until 2006. According to the
Radiation Effects Research Foundation’s 2007 report, however, the types of
cancer have now increased to twelve, with the addition of uterine cancer to leukemia,
thyroid cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer,
meningioma, bladder cancer, liver cancer and ovarian cancer.
The number of cancer types has gradually increased in every report from 5 in the first report.
In the case of pancreatic cancer in the past, for example, the cancer progressed quickly
and killed the victim before a diagnosis was established. These days, however,
quicker diagnosis allows pancreatic cancer to be diagnosed while the victim is still alive.
In 5 or 6 years, pancreatic cancer could be added to the list of cancers affected by the radiation.
The length of time between the A-bombing and development of these cancers differs with each cancer ,
rather than being the same in all cases. Regarding leukemia cases among Hiroshima’s A-bomb victims,
the incidence of both acute and chronic cases significantly increased from 1950,
especially among children. In recent years, although chronic myelocytic leukemia rarely occurs among
the A-bomb victims, there are some cases where a victim develops acute myelocytic leukemia.
So leukemia caused by the A-bombing has yet to become a bygone issue.
Like cancers, features of leukemia development among the A-bomb victims include:
① higher incidence with greater exposure to the radiation; since the distance from ground zero
was shorter or closer to ground zero, the victim was more affected; ② higher incidence the
lower the victim’s age at the time of exposure to the radiation.
This means that cells are more susceptible at a younger age, when these cells are more active;
③ leukemia development reaches its peak 7 to 8 years after exposure to the radiation; and
④ chronic myelocytic leukemia incidence among Hiroshima cases is definitely more frequent
than among Nagasaki cases.
As for cataracts caused by the radiation, in the case of one A-bomb victim suffering from both
irradiation cataract and senile cataract, his senile cataracts had already advanced in a
photographic image of him at the age of 55 compared to a photographic image of him 10 years before at the age of 45.
This suggests that irradiation cataracts may facilitate the progress of senile cataracts.
As mentioned above, similar things may be applied to ear problems, as well.
As for chromosome abnormalities, chromosomes can be easily detected from peripheral blood
lymphocytes of a person exposed to radiation. Specifics of chromosome abnormalities
in able-bodied A-bomb victims include the facts that ① the level of chromosome abnormality
is correlative to the exposed dose, ② the abnormalities stay for a long time as stable abnormalities,
③ the abnormalities can be observed in every system, and ④ the abnormalities can be observed at
the stem cell level (in the bone marrow, intestines, and mammary glands). Human bodies have various
seeds of cells. Since these cells are also abnormal, the same types of abnormalities have always remained.
Therefore, chromosome abnormalities of A-bomb victims are precious evidence that can tell about the incident in 1945.
Moreover, since the chromosome abnormalities are correlative to the exposed dose,
if one was exposed to radiation at a point within 1.5 km from ground zero, the distance
from ground zero can be proven from the degree of chromosome abnormalities.
In the case of prenatal radiation exposure, since the period from 2 to 4 months of pregnancy
is a delicate stage, many people who were exposed to the radiation in the womb during this period
have developed microcephaly. Such cases are caused not only by radiation but also by cigarettes
and other chemicals, such as agricultural chemicals. Therefore, pregnant women must not ingest
these chemicals during this delicate period.
Keloids cause symptoms that joints in elbows, wrists and fingers harden and are no longer bendable
due to permanent joint stiffness, a condition called “contracture.” When I took a train around 1955,
I saw some people wearing their hats low over their eyes or long-sleeved clothes in summer.
These people must have been keeping their keloids from being exposed in public.
(2) What is happening to A-bomb victims’ bodies (now)?
What is happening to A-bomb victims’ bodies is related to ① chromosome abnormalities,
② lower immune strength, ③ serum factors that damage DNA, ④ de-repressed cancer genes,
⑤ meningioma and double cancer, and ⑥ mental effects (weight on their minds).
As for factors in serum that damage DNA, when an A-bomb victim’s blood (serum) and a
healthy non-A-bomb victim’s lymphocytes are mixed and cultivated for 2 days, the healthy person’s
lymphocytes become abnormal. This means that some factor that damages DNA persists in
the serum more than 30 years after the A-bombing.
As for de-repressed cancer genes, if DNA extracted from an A-bomb victim’s marrow cell and
broken into fragments is injected into the armpit and leg hollow of an immunocompromised nude
mouse after infusing into mouse cells, tumors will develop 3 to 4 weeks later.
From the resulting tumors, de-repressed human cancer genes are detected.
These days, cases of multiple tumors frequently happen. One person who was exposed to the
radiation at Hiroshima Municipal Honkawa Elementary School, 430 m away from ground zero,
and now suffers from 48% chromosome abnormality, developed thyroid cancer at age 51,
colon cancer at age 62, and meningioma at age 67. Another person who was exposed to the
radiation at a point 530 m away from ground zero developed uterine body cancer at age 57,
breast cancer at age 66, and meningioma at age 69.
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The experience of the A-bombing has also mentally influenced A-bomb victims. For example,
some victims have held a sense of guilt regretting that they did not help their friends,
as though it was an incident that happened only a month ago instead of more than 60 years ago.
Some victims have also become very sensitive to loud booming sounds and intense eye-piercing light,
feeling awed, feeling respect toward departed victims and unlimited anxieties or trying to escape from the scene.
I often heard victims saying, “I don’t want to be a burden to my family and friends any more.”
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Mr.Kamata
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(3) What will happen to A-bomb victims’ bodies (in the future)?
As for age-related fracture, A-bomb victims break bones frequently. So, it is important for
them to get enough exercise and exposure to the sun. From now on, with more and more victims
living alone, how to live alone in good health will be an important issue for them.
To help them get some exercise, students and middle-aged and elderly volunteers have organized
“Shopping Helper Units” to assist elderly A-bomb victims for about one hour a week when they
go shopping at the market. Four students visit an elderly woman once a month to walk with her
while she does some shopping. In one model project currently implemented in Asakita-ku, victims
are asked to talk about their experience of the A-bombing.
Another future issue is an increase in cancer cases among victims who were exposed to the radiation
in adolescence and an increase in multiple primary cancer cases.
Of the 28 identified A-bomb survivors who were exposed to the radiation at the Former Hiroshima
Central Telephone Telegraph at the age of 15 to 16, 11 survivors are suffering from breast cancer.
Some of these survivors are suffering from colon cancer, but the incidence of breast cancer is higher
if A-bomb survivors were exposed to the radiation when cell division of the mammary gland was most active.
Feeling for the A-bombing and wish for peace
I believe that my duty is to scientifically prove the effects of the A-bombing and carry out what
only a physician in Hiroshima can do.
I have been a member of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) for 20 years.
As an IPPNW member, I have proposed that all of us should pray for peace by putting up ribbons that were
made by elderly women in Hiroshima. I would like to put my proposal into practice as a campaign, also in Hiroshima.
I have also been involved in HICARE (Hiroshima International Council for Health Care of the Radiation-Exposed)
since its inception.
As for handing down the spirit of Hiroshima, I originally wrote my book “One Day in Hiroshima ? An Oral History”
simply to better understand the facts. I did not put much emphasis on the aspect of handing it down.
However, in the process of writing, I changed my mind and developed the hope that I would be able to convey
to the world the reality of Hiroshima and an overview of the damage by any means. So I finished writing the
book with this hope to hand down the facts.
It is important to hand down the experiences of the A-bombing in Hiroshima, which can really only be done by
people from Hiroshima. All of you must have been involved in various kinds of peace activities.
I hope these activities will be carried out from the perspective of what only people from Hiroshima can do.
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