Aftereffects

A-bomb suffering never ends.

The A-bomb's impact on human bodies is broadly divided into acute effects and aftereffects.

Impact on Human Bodies

In Hiroshima, acute effects caused by heat rays, fire, blast, and radiation appeared immediately after the bombing. These effects faded in four to five months. Even after the acute effects were healed, however, the effects of the A-bomb continued. The aftereffects included keloids (excessive growth of scar tissue over a burn) and leukemia.
　　　 The number of survivors contracting leukemia increased noticeably two to three years after the bombing and hit its peak after seven to eight years. Five to ten years after the bombing, the survivors began contracting thyroid, breast, lung and other cancers at higher than normal rates.
　　　Many babies inside their mothers' wombs at the time of the bombing died before they were born. Of those born alive, some had a syndrome called microcephaly.

A woman with keloids on her back and both arms

Support for the Survivors

For several years after the end of the war, the occupation government severely restricted all news and investigation regarding the atomic bomb. These restrictions prevented the general public from finding out about the aftereffects of the bombing and kept the survivors from receiving special assistance. In 1954, triggered by the radiation exposure of the Japanese fishing boat the Fukuryu-maru V (Lucky Dragon), a movement to help the A-bomb survivors gained momentum. In 1956, the Hiroshima Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital (now, Hiroshima Red Cross and Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital) was built especially to offer examinations, treatment, and health management services to survivors. The following year, the A-bomb Survivors Medical Care Law was passed, and anyone who obtained an A-bomb Survivor Health Book could receive money from the government to help with medical expenses. A nursing home for survivors was also built about that time.

The Hiroshima Atomic-bomb Victims Convalescent Research Center
　The large communal bath at Kanda Sanso

Sadako's Medical Record

Did Sadako know she had leukemia?

When Sadako got leukemia, there was no way of curing the disease. No one on the hospital staff or even in her own family ever told Sadako the name of her disease. And yet, for some reason she secretly kept track of the results of her blood tests. (The normal number of white blood cells is 4,000 to 8,000 per cubic millimeter. Leukemia causes that number to rise dramatically, often over 100,000.)

Sadako's Medical Record

The City Returns to Life

Rebuilding as a City of Peace

Ten years after the end of the war Hiroshima was recovering rapidly. One important reason was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law enacted in 1949. This law said that Hiroshima, the first city in human history to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, should take on the role of appealing to the world for peace. The rebuilding of the city was supported by this law. In parts of town full of shacks hastily thrown together for emergency shelter, real houses were built, roads were widened, and life began settling down. The city gradually took on its new form and role.

Watch Hiroshima's recovery.

Peace Memorial Park near the hypocenter

The recovery plan called for a park to be built in the area around the A-bomb Dome and all of Nakajima-cho (the area across the river) that would become a symbol of peace. Peace Memorial Park was built, and the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims was unveiled on August 6, 1952. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum opened in August 1955. The park was laid out with the A-bomb Dome, the Cenotaph, and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum all standing in a straight line north to south.
Just south of the Peace Memorial Museum, an extremely wide street (100 meters) was built. After a naming contest, it was given the name Heiwa Odori, which means "Peace Boulevard."

Hiroshima Restoration Exposition