The time period surrounding the years of World War Two are widely recognized as one of the most violent periods in human history. 1939 to 1945 have been marred as a global conflict that involved most of the world. Though the fighting during the previous World War One was restricted to European soil, World War Two saw battles extending out of Europe and into Africa Asia, and America. The global effort of defeating the Axis nations left devastation in its aftermath. Some of the aftermath issues including financial, social and infrastructure damage for many of the countries that were involved pale in comparison to some of the harder hit countries. Near the end of the war in August of 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima are regarded as one of the largest attacks and quite possibly left the most long-standing repercussions on its citizens. The long and short term effects of the dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese included medical, social, economic, environmental, political and psychological effects on its survivors that continued far beyond the conclusion of the war. When discussing repercussions and outcomes of World War Two and especially of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it is important to consider not only the global impact, but the human impact and cost as well.
On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped the first atomic bomb—code named Little Boy—on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 7) The U.S. B-29 Superfortress plane, the Enola Gay, dropped the bomb which levelled the industrial city with an estimated population of 300 000 people. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 44) An estimated 120,000 people were killed immediately from the concussive force and the heat of the explosion, and an additional 100,000 others would die in later years from radiation sickness and other defects. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 44) Contained within this bomb was 140 pounds of Uranium 235, which had the capacity to release an energy burst equivalent to 12.5 kilotons of TNT. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 7) The bomb, detonated 600 meters above the centre of the city, and took less than a millionth of a second to shoot through Hiroshima with hyper-energetic radiation. (Voosen, 2011) These charged photons passed through every surface of infrastructure and only rested once coming into contact with human cellular structure, causing radiation sickness that would later claim many lives. (Voosen, 2011) At the epi-center of the explosion, the temperature was several million degrees centigrade. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 7) Within the first millisecond after detonation, the fireball that formed reached a temperature of 300,000 degrees centigrade; enough to immediately incinerate any human being in range. The top of the atomic cloud reached an altitude of 17,000 meters and levelled two square miles in the centre of the city. The intense heat generated by the explosion caused fires as far as two miles from ground zero. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 7)
The second bomb, code named Fat Man, was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. An even larger explosive, it contained plutonium with energy levels equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 8) Although the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was more powerful than that the explosive dropped on Hiroshima, damage to the Nagasaki was less extensive because the bomb was dropped about two miles off target. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 8) On August 10, 1945, the Japanese sued for peace after being defeated by the devastation of the bombings, and U.S. President Truman declared August 14th as Victory over Japan Day. By the end of World War Two, nearly 55 million people died, including nearly 8 million people in China. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 44)
“A bright light filled the plane,” wrote Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb. “We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud . . . boiling up, mushrooming.” For a moment, no one spoke. Then everyone was talking. “Look at that! Look at that! Look at that!” exclaimed the co-pilot, Robert Lewis, pounding on Tibbets‘s shoulder. Lewis said he could taste atomic fission; it tasted like lead. Then he turned away to write in his journal. “My God,” he asked himself, “what have we done?” (Baumgarten and McCrary, 26)
The health effects on the survivors of the atomic bombs have been extensively studied for more than six decades. The long term physical effects have been the most predominant area of concern and study; ranging from cancers to benign tumours, leukemia, radiation, burns, and more. When studying the atomic bomb impacts on health, it is important to understand how the damage is done. Most damage caused by a nuclear weapon comes as a result of the explosive blast, causing a shock wave of air to radiate outward and produce changes in air pressure that crush objects and high winds that knock objects down, making up 35% of the explosion energy. Skin burns caused by the intense heat can occur as far as five miles from the blast. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 9) Direct radiation sickness occurs at the time of the explosion. Although it can be very intense, its range is limited. When an atomic bomb is detonated, the blast creates a large crater where material that was in the crater is carried up into the air. This material is made radioactive by the explosion and returns to the earth as radioactive fallout. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 9) Particles may be carried by the wind for long distances before falling to the ground to rest. This was the basis for many fears later on about the long term effects of radiation. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, death and injury were caused by both the immediate blast of heat, and direct radiation and from the delayed fallout effects like later radiation, cancer and in-utero problems. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 9)
After the end of World War Two, the U.S. government and the Japanese National Institute of Health established the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission to conduct health studies on the survivors of the atomic bombs. In 1975, the responsibility for these studies was taken over by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, an independent institution funded by the U.S. and Japanese governments. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 10) The effects of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have resulted in the largest and longest human epidemiologic study ever undertaken. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 18) Because of the magnitude of the blast, it is possible for scientists to study men and women of all ages, as well as children and unborn babies. Depending on where they were at the time of the explosions, different survivors experienced different amounts of exposure to radiation and other harmful effects. As a result, scientists are able to study the extent to which health was dependent on an individual’s radiation dose. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 18) The results of these epidemiologic studies go beyond the implications for Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The radiation studies on atomic bomb survivors have been a major part in establishing the role of ionizing radiation in causing cancer and to elucidate the biological mechanisms of cancer causation. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 19) These studies have helped government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency set limits and protocols for safe exposure. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 19) These safety regulations help to protect the many people who are potentially exposed to ionizing radiation through medical uses, radiation-emitting products, and employment in certain industries, accidents, nuclear weapons and natural sources. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 19) Since 1945, the medical histories of atomic bomb survivors have provided the authoritative source for how scientists understand the effects of radiation on the human body. George Kerr, a consultant and physicist for the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory states: "These radiation standards are accepted worldwide.” (Voosen, 2011)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors are being studied by epidemiologic scientists for clues to their health span, pathology, mortality, biochemical genetics, cytogenetic and potential exposure to off-spring. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 10) In these epidemiologic studies, the relationship between a possibly harmful exposure and a particular disease is studied. In these studies, the epidemiologist observes whether disease occurs more commonly among individuals who have the exposure or factor than among those who do not. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 10)
Shortly after both bombs were dropped and World War Two was over, there arose concerns focused on the quality of the health of the survivor's children. There was an ambitious American study where scientist’s monitored 77,000 children born in Hiroshima and Nagasaki just after the bombings and an additional 10, 000 children were studied in-utero. (Voosen, 2011) Contrary to everyone’s expectations there was no directly linked evidence of increased stillbirths, malformations or deaths in these children. (Voosen, 2011) This is a topic that has been studied extensively over the last six decades, with the radiation having less of an effect on a survivor’s health than one would think.
Since 1950, there have been deep fears that exposure to radiation would cause deformities and mutations in children of survivors. This brings to light some of the important social implications that would occur for years to come as a result of the devastation of the bombs. Arranged marriages, a popular Japanese custom, fell apart once parents discovered a woman was an atomic bomb survivor. (Voosen, 2011) As a result, so many women and their families would try to say that they were out of the city when the bombs fell. However, later blood tests would eventually show their true proximity to the blasts. (Voosen, 2011)
Published in the Journal of American Medicine, studies show that individuals who survived the atomic bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are still suffering health problems. These academic studies conclude that the younger the individual at the time of the explosion, and the more radiation they were exposed to, the higher their risk of illness. (BBC, 2006) Just under 45% of those studied had malignant tumours, lumps on the thyroid and cysts. The researchers, led by Dr Misa Imaizumi, stated that those who were aged under 20 when the atomic bombs dropped had a higher risk of disease than those who had been older. (BBC, 2006)
Out of 100,000 atomic survivors tracked by RERF (Japan's Radiation Effects Research Foundation) only 853 cases resulted in cancerous tumours that can be attributed to the bombs. Survivors exposed in utero are part of a separate study; which concluded that 17,448 survivors had developed tumours that could be linked to the explosions. (Voosen, 2011) However, five percent of these are attributable to radiation, and the number rises to 11 percent when limited to those receiving more than the common exposure level of 5 millisieverts (mSv). (Voosen, 2011) There is statistically significant evidence that radiation exposure causes a tiny increase in the risk of contracting cancer. This risk becomes far more evident at higher doses: (Voosen, 2011) "Generally young people are more sensitive to radiation, and that makes sense biologically, as their cells are diving more rapidly than those of an adult, so they might be more sensitive to the risks." said Kiyohiko Mabuchi, a senior scientist at the National Cancer Institute's epidemiology division. (Voosen, 2011)
In both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the magnitude of the blast radius largely destroyed the cities as entities, leaving nothing but devastation, bodies and rubble. The long standing repercussions of dropping the atomic bombs on the cities left major environmental and economic damages in its wake. The pressure of the blast largely affected building roofs. Some telegraph and other hydro poles immediately below the explosion site remained upright while those at greater distances from the center—being more largely exposed to a horizontal thrust from the blast pressure—were overturned or tilted. Trees underneath the explosion remained upright but had their branches broken downward. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 29) There was a mass desolation of buildings roughly four miles out from the center of the blast. Even the worst of all other previous bomb attacks on Germany and Japan were not comparable to the paralyzing effect of the atomic bombs. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 24) Immediately following the explosions, survivors fled Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a blind panic. As a result there was no reconstruction or repair work was accomplished for many months, and clearing of wreckage and the burning of many radiation exposed bodies trapped within the city were not begun for several weeks afterwards. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 24) By the end of November 1945, each of the cities held only about 140,000 people each. “Although the ending of the war almost immediately after the atomic bombings removed much of the incentive of the Japanese people toward immediate reconstruction of their losses, their paralysis was still remarkable.” - (Baumgarten and McCrary, 24) A British Mission in the cities later on remarked on the state of the Japanese citizens; “the impression which both cities make is of having sunk, in an instant and without a struggle, to the most primitive level.” - (Baumgarten and McCrary, 24) The extensive destruction of both city’s civil infrastructure, the hospitals, fire and police departments, and government agencies left the entire state in disarray following the explosion. The fires that raged in each city completely consumed many bodies and released further radiation into the atmosphere. (Baumgarten and McCrary, 30)
Mental health is another important factor integral to the study of the repercussions of the atomic bombs. Though the popular focus usually remains set on consequences like health, there have been numerous academic studies con conducted since the 1960’s on the mental health repercussions of atomic bomb survivors. Studies concluded that a large number of survivors developed signs of neuroses including but not limited to insomnia, paranoia and hypochondria. (Ohta et al, 2000) These studies used individuals who were exposed to both high and low doses of radiation in the 1945 attacks. In certain cases the appearance and the prevalence of these psychological conditions were not observable until many years following the atomic blasts. (Ohta et al, 2000)
“Retroactive examination of health surveys taken from 1962 - 1965 found that survivors exposed to acute levels of radiation were twice as likely to exhibit anxiety and somatization symptoms, displays of physical symptoms which have no physical cause. These findings are in keeping with a post-war study suggesting that trauma involving physical suffering is more likely to lead to somatization than those without.” - (Yamada and Shizue, 2002)
Factors of distress found in survivors of the atomic bombs were most strongly related to their social activities and manifested itself in disrupted personal relationships, loss of quality of life. (Kim, et al. 2011) Studies were also conducted on multiple test subjects who claimed to be outside of the blast radius during these attacks. Regardless of the fact that they have no outstanding physical repercussions of the atomic attacks, many still exhibit certain signs of mental illness pointing to serious anxiety. (Kim, et al. 2011) This believed to be caused from an innate fear of learning about an inescapable hazard, and an individual’s lack of knowledge concerning how risk could be imminent to them and their families. (Kim, et al. 2011) Instances of these test results are similar in many North American wartime vets who return to their homes with post-traumatic stress disorder. These test results are merely another form of PTSD. Although the academic literature discussing the psychological impacts of the atomic bombs has been published intermittently through the last five decades, they provide ample evidence that implies experiencing the 1945 nuclear explosions, even second-hand, can have profound psychological effects on the survivors for the rest of their lives. (Kim, et al. 2011)
What are the potential costs of any war? Aside from the obvious political and financial losses, the human component must be taken into account. As evidenced above, the human component involves not only the loss of life, but many other forms of repercussions as well.
Works Cited
BBC Newsgroup. "Ill-health Legacy of Atomic Bomb." BBC News. BBC Worldwide, 1 Mar. 2006. Web. Nov. 2014. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4758232.stm>.
Kim, Y., A. Tsutsumi, T. Izutsu, N. Kawamura, T. Miyazaki, and T. Kikkawa. "Persistent Distress after Psychological Exposure to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Explosion." The British Journal of Psychiatry 199.5 (2011): 411-16. US National Library of Medicine. Web.
McCrary, Felicia, and Mona Baumgarten. Casualties of War: The Short- and Long-Term Effects of the 1945 Atomic Bomb Attacks on Japan. Collegeboard.com. The Young Epidemiology Scholars Program: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, n.d. Web. Nov. 2014. <http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/yes/4297_MODULE_20.pdf>.
Ohta, Yasuyuki, Mariko Mine, Masako Wakasugi, Etsuko Yoshimine, Yachiyo Himuro, Megumi Yoneda, Sayuri Yamaguchi, Akemi Mikita, and Tomoko Morikawa. "Psychological Effect of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing on Survivors after Half a Century." Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 54.1 (2000): 97-109. Wiley Online Library. Web. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1440-1819.2000.00643.x/full>.
Voosen, Paul. "Hiroshima and Nagasaki Cast Long Shadows Over Radiation Science." The New York Times. Business Day: Energy & Environment. N.p., 11 Apr. 2011. Web. Nov. 2014.
Yamada, Michiko, and Shizue Izumi. "Psychiatric Sequelae in Atomic Bomb Survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Two Decades after the Explosions." Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 37.9 (2002): 409-15. US National Library of Medicine. Web.
