1) Immediate Effects After the Bomb: Severe Burns
HIBAKUSHA: What atomic bomb survivors were referred to as, meaning "explosion-affected people."
During World War II, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Devastating effects ensued once blast and heat radiated from the point of detonation. Thermal radiation caused by the bomb was so great that it was sufficient enough to set beddings, curtains, and even plywood ablaze. The citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were immediately affected, with both their buildings and bodies being burned. In Hiroshima, around 70,000 people were killed on impact. In Nagasaki, about 40,000 died instantly.
People who were located out to nearly nine miles away suffered from second degree burns. Within 6.5 miles of the detonation, exposed skin suffered from third degree burns which destroyed tissue and left disfiguring scars. Such flash burns as these accounted for about one-third of the fatalities in Hiroshima.
Dr. Masao Tomonaga, another witness, stated that other immediate injuries from the atomic bomb were fractures and critical bodily injuries caused by shards of glass. Different effects depended on where the victims were located when the bomb detonated. People who were unsheltered near the bomb had their bodies instantly turned into charcoal. Those who were a bit further away would suffer from radioactivity, heat radiation, and fractures.
2) Keloid Scarring, Social Impact, and Stigma Alongside Survivors
After the victims’ burns healed, their skin left behind large keloid scars. These keloid scars were patches of thick, rubbery skin which became red in color. Yet the atomic bomb had affected survivors through social means as well. Large burn scars prevented survivors from leaving their homes in fear of embarrassment from stares and judgment. In addition, children with these scars were often teased for their appearance.
Etsuko Fujioka was an eleven year girl who was given the name “A-Bomb Scar-face” by the public. She stated, “At the thought of the future I feel afraid to go on living. In many homes, people hid their mirrors so that burn victim would not realize how they looked." Another girl, Shigeko, was 13 and worked in the streets as the bomb fell. She did not know how scarred her face was until she saw her reflection in a piece of glass one day. Recalling, she said, "I couldn’t believe it was my face... I felt shock, like when someone drops ice-cold water down your back…. My face like this? I didn’t cry out or scream, no noise, but tears ran like hot water, burning all down my face."
Ridicule was not the only thing which survivors had gone through. Those who were victims of the bomb suffered from discrimination. Fellow Japanese citizens often shunned obvious survivors, as their conditions were seen as "unclean" and were embarrassing reminders of the past. With this stigma, survivors were generally not allowed to marry those who were not exposed to the bomb’s effects. An example of this can be seen through Sunao Tsuboi, a 20-year old university student at the time who was burned from head to toe. He later fell in love with a woman but was not allowed to marry her, as her parents feared he would soon die or that the pair would deliver deformed children.
3) Health Consequences and Cancer from Radiation
The atomic bomb continued to kill off Japanese citizens every day throughout August and September 1945. Radiation contributed to these deaths, as the atomic bomb yielded around 200 different types of radioactive isotopes. Consuming or breathing in any contaminated resources resulted in severe radiation poisoning.
The first symptom of radiation poisoning was sudden hair loss. This would soon be followed by diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and fatally low levels of white blood cells, which was essential to the body's defense against infection. At first, vomiting and diarrhea were assumed to be dysentery and resulted in various attempts to introduce quarantines. Soon enough, those with radiation poisoning developed petechiae, or purple spots, on limbs and pressure points. Petechiae became a common obsession amongst survivors, as it was considered a mark of death to those affected. Including those killed in the initial impact and those who died from radiation poisoning, the final death toll in 1945 was around 135,000 people.
"Everyone had begun to examine one another for these ominous spots until it seemed we were suffering from a spot phobia. I too became afraid. When I got back to my bed I examined every inch of my body and you can imagine the relief I felt when I found no petechiae. So far I was all right." -Doctor Michihiko Hayicha
Radiation also led to consequences which occurred on a much larger time scale. The bomb's radiation caused damage to hibakusha's DNA strands, mutations in living cells, and eventually cancer. However, in order for a mutation to cause cancer, a series of mutations must accumulate within a certain cell and multiply. For this reason, any evident signs of cancer from radiation could happen years after a person’s first exposure.
An increase in many solid cancers did not happen until about ten years after the bombings. An increase was first noticed around 1956 by Gensaku Obo, a Japanese physicist. During this time, tumor registries started in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima to collect data concerning excess cancer risks caused by radiation exposure. As the hibakusha have aged, their risk of cancer has increased as well.
Out of all the long-term effects caused by radiation, the deadliest was leukemia, a cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues. Those who were within 1.5 km of the center of the detonation point suffered the most from this particular cancer. Furthermore, children were the main population of hibakushas who were most severely affected by leukemia. An increase in leukemia cases happened around two years after the bomb and reached a high around four to six years later. Studies now show that the victims, who are now elderly, are experiencing a specific type of leukemia called myelodysplastic syndrome.
4) Impact on Mental Health
When Nagasaki University doctors conducted an experiment with atomic bomb survivors, they found that there was a high rate of people who suffered from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder fifty years after the incident. Flashback to the atomic bombing also negatively affects their mental health. Over subsequent years, many suicides in Japan were blamed on the abiding mental impact from the atomic bomb.
"My daughter Nanako was so eager to live for the sake of her newborn baby, but she couldn't be saved. ... After Nanako died, my 26-year-old son had keloid scars on his head and hands. Therefore, he couldn't get married, and he tried to commit suicide several times." -Kenzaburo Oe
5) Effects on Survivors' Progeny and Future Generations
Most of the generation that was alive during the attack have passed away, so the focus has shifted to the children of survivors. Individuals who were exposed to the atomic bomb's radiation in-utero had a greater chance of smaller head sizes, intellectual disabilities, and impairments to physical growth.
On the other hand, children of survivors who were conceived after the bombings have shown little to no radiation-related diseases. In addition, the radiation levels in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are currently low enough that radiation is barely detectable. With the healthfulness of new generations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they prove that the citizens of a city can prosper even under the midst of tragedy.