Hibakusha

The word “hibakusha” can be literally translated from Japanese to “A-bombed person.” The term refers to any people exposed to radiation when the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II (Todeschini 1999). These bombings were the first events in which large populations were exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation. Around 60,000 people who were within 2,000 meters of the hypocenters of the atomic detonations survived the initial explosions (Hollingsworth 1966). Within this range, individuals were considered to be at high risk for serious health problems related to radiation exposure. Indeed, many health problems arose for the hibakusha in the years after the bombings, most notably leukemia (a deadly form of bone marrow cancer) and birth defects such as microcephaly (a condition that results in a child being born with a smaller-than-normal head). The treatment required for these and other conditions constituted the hibakusha’s biological citizenship, which Petryna defines as “a demand for, but limited access to, a form of social welfare based on medical, scientific, and legal criteria that recognize injury and compensate for it ” (Petryna 2004). In spite of the problems they faced, for a variety of reasons the demands of these victims’ biological citizenship was consistently ignored for years. Due to stigma surrounding impurity and the complex motivations of the American and Japanese governments, the hibakusha spent years being treated as though they were not entitled to any kind of special treatment.
In 1946, the United States established the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in order to collect information on the long-terms effects of radiation on human health (Todeschini 1999). In the 1940s, little was known for certain about how radiation affected human bodies. As the Cold War began, this uncertainty turned into anxiety over the results of a nuclear conflict. The ABCC was an early and ultimately important source of research in this new scientific territory. Despite their extensive and even invasive research efforts, the ABCC had a strict “no-treatment policy” (Southard 2010). The ABCC gave many dubious excuses for this policy, at first claiming that the language barrier made treatment of hibakusha by American doctors infeasible. By 1951, however, the majority of the physicians affiliated with the commission were Japanese. The ABCC also blamed the policies of the post-war American occupation, even though it was not technically obliged to comply with these policies (Southard 2010). Despite these and other claims, historians agree that the no-treatment policy was part of an American pattern of denying wrongdoing in regard to the atomic bombings. Treating those injured by the atomic bombs would most likely have been interpreted by the international community as an admission of guilt. The ABCC also fell into line with US policy by downplaying the negative effects of radiation on the health of victims of the atomic bombings, typically denying the role of radiation in any health issues and blaming the problems on other conditions such as malnutrition (Todeschini 1999). Perpetuated by the Japanese successors to the ABCC, this misinformation would harm the legitimacy of radiation-related health complaints for years. As a result of these political choices by the Americans, the hibakusha missed an opportunity to be recognized as a group worthy of treatment for their ailments. (link to Southard article: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjB483S04bTAhWG4SYKHSfyBCUQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fmagazine%2Fstory%2F2015%2F08%2Fatomic-bomb-anniversary-nagasaki-121179&usg=AFQjCNHLugjKivbDhkFy_vBSjm_9njQwQA)

The relationship between the Japanese people and the ABCC also hurt the hibakusha’s chances at receiving the treatment that they needed. After the brutality and massive losses of World War II, the Japanese people were conditioned to fear and mistrust the American “devils.” There was a prevailing attitude among the Japanese that the activities of the ABCC were aimed at preparing for nuclear war rather than the betterment of modern medicine (Todeschini 1999). In addition, many Japanese were rightfully suspicious of the ABCC’s political agenda. The American occupation force went as far as to censor any negative press for the ABCC within Japan. As a result of this lack of trust, the Japanese tended to disregard any information that came out of the ABCC, the only organization that was conducting extensive research on the health of the hibakusha. With no seemingly reliable source of information on these health issues, the Japanese people felt that they had no legitimate reason to believe that the hibakusha required any special medical treatment.
In addition to the actions of the occupying Americans, the attitudes and cultural beliefs of the Japanese inhibited adequate medical care for the hibakusha. Partially stemming from the influences of Shintoism and Buddhism on Japanese culture, the concepts of purity and impurity were very important to the Japanese people (Todeschini 1999). This emphasis on purity was accompanied by a fear of contamination, which has led to social stigma against many people traditionally considered to be impure in some way. As a result of these beliefs and a lack of public knowledge about the nature of radiation at the time, many Japanese feared and alienated the hibakusha in the years following the bombing, anxious over the possibility of contamination (Todeschini 1999). The status of the hibakusha marked them as different and possibly even dangerous rather than victims who deserved help and treatment. Many of the hibakusha, especially women, had trouble finding spouses due to this stigma. While many of these women banded together to form activism groups such as the Osaka Association of Female A-bomb Victims, the prejudice persisted (Todeschini 1999). The low socio-economic status of most hibakusha impeded their battle against this stigma, adding to their marginalization by reducing their voice in Japanese society.
The attitudes of Japanese doctors also impeded treatment for the hibakusha. As a result of the ABCC’s no treatment policy and a lack of national sympathy for the hibakusha, treatment was left up to the local physicians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the physical ramifications of radiation were still largely unknown at the time, many physicians chose to blame many of the symptoms of radiation exposure to the excessive anxiety of their patients over the possible effects of the atomic bomb. Hiroshima physicians even coined the term “A-bomb neurosis” to refer to their patients’ supposedly irrational obsession with the possibility of radiation exposure (Todeschini 1999). Many doctors, especially those affiliated with the ABCC, were known to treat hibakusha condescendingly due to their low socio-economic statuses. Many of these elite, highly educated physicians considered the largely impoverished hibakusha to be ignorant and untrustworthy when it came to reporting their symptoms (Todeschini 1999). Some ailments were directly blamed on the poverty of the hibakusha. For example, when one mother brought in her micro-cephalic son for examination, his symptoms were attributed to malnutrition, and his mother was given money to feed him instead of medical advice or treatment (Todeschini 1999). Local physicians, the only source of treatment for the hibakusha, failed to acknowledge their entitlement to proper treatment.
The Japanese government did not help or even reach out to the hibakusha in any way until the National Hibakusha Relief Law of 1957. In the years between the atomic bombings and the passage of this act, the hibakusha’s biological citizenship was completely denied to them by both the American and Japanese governments. While the hibakusha’s various medical problems as a result of the bombings should have warranted them special care and welfare from at least one the countries that was responsible for them, they were almost completely ignored by both for over a decade.

Hollingsworth
“Radiation-related Leukemia in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1946-1964,” The New England Journal of Medicine 274 (1966): 1095-1101.
Petyrna, Adriana
“Biological Citizenship: The Science and Politics of Chernobyl-Exposed Populations,” Osiris 19 (2004): 261.
Southard, Susan
“How a Secretive U.S. Agency Discovered the A-bomb’s Effect on People,” Politico, August 9, 2010.
Todeschini, Maya
“Illegitimate Sufferers: A-Bomb Victims, Medical Science, and the Government,” Daedalus 128 (1999): 67-100

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