by Shuntaro Hida

On July 14, 2009, the Peace Research Institute of the Japanese Committee of the World Conference of Religions for Peace invited to its study session Dr. Shuntaro Hida, former director of the Hibakusha Counseling Center of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. Born in 1917, Dr. Hida, who was himself irradiated by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, has, over a period of more than sixty years, treated six thousand patients suffering from illnesses resulting from atomic bomb radiation. Dr. Hida spoke from his experience with acute radiation syndrome and internal exposure caused by the atomic bomb. The following is a portion of his talk.

I have seen with a doctor's eyes how radiation from an atomic bomb kills humans. Yet modern medicine has yet to be able to prove a causal relationship between the sickness suffered by atomic bomb victims and the radiation from the atomic bomb. So the side that dropped the bomb continues to have nuclear weapons, saying falsely that the effects of radiation are trivial. What I want to do in my talk today is to connect the issues of today to the horror that I have seen with my own eyes of humans dying as a result of radiation, and to the fact that we cannot allow nuclear weapons to exist in the world.

Death Caused by Acute Radiation Syndrome

In 1944, at the age of twenty-eight, I was assigned as an army medical officer to Hiroshima Military Hospital. On the morning of August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, annihilating the city. My life was spared that day because I happened to be making a house call in a village outside the city to see the child of a farming family. Even though it was six kilometers (just under four miles) away from ground zero, the roof of the farmhouse was blown off, the house was demolished, and inside the house I too was blown about. Because of my duties as a military medical officer, after making sure the farm family was safe, I sped back on my bicycle toward the city and the hospital. On the way, however, I encountered an endless line of horribly burned people fleeing the Hiroshima area. I gave up the idea of returning to the hospital and went back to the village I had just left, where, together with other medical officers, nurses, and combat medics, I set about treating the people who were fleeing Hiroshima.

The atomic bomb had burned many people over their entire bodies, and the dead hardly looked human. But in among the people who had died there were also many who had less severe burns and who looked like they could possibly be saved. Some of these, however, suddenly ran temperatures of 39-40¡C (102-104¡F). Not only did they have fevers, but they were also bleeding from their noses, mouths, and the corners of their eyes. I thought they might be suffering from colds, which would have made their tonsils inflamed and deep red in color, but when I looked down their throats to inspect their tonsils, there was such a stench I couldn't keep my face in front of them. It was the putrid smell of death, which can happen when a part of the body rots while the rest is still living. The insides of their mouths were pitch black, meaning necrosis had set in. Eventually violet-colored flecks appeared on the unburned, clear parts of their skin, and finally all their hair fell out. No matter how healthy they had been, the people who exhibited these symptoms died in two or three hours. This is what I saw of people dying from acute illness due to radiation.

Internal Exposure That Continues to Destroy Cells

While I was going about my work, a soldier who was behind me grabbed my clothing and pulled at me, saying "Medical Officer, sir, I wasn't exposed to the [bomb's] flash." He was with a unit stationed far from Hiroshima, but on the evening of the sixth the commanding officer of his unit learned of the terrible state of affairs in Hiroshima and brought all the soldiers to Hiroshima, where they presumably helped in relieving the still-burning city. At any rate, this soldier had worked for two days without anything to drink or eat, and on the morning of the third day he collapsed from exhaustion. His comrades had carried him to the village medical clinic and left him in the midst of the bomb victims lying on the floor. In other words, although he had not been directly irradiated by the atomic bomb, he was in the midst of those who had been; he had been watching them die one after another. He had watched as their skin got purple spots, their hair fell out, and they finally vomited blood or blood came out of their rectums and they all died. Purple spots then started to appear on his own skin and, terrified, he came to where I was standing.

I put him off, telling him that since he hadn't been exposed to the bomb he would get better if he stayed where he was and rested. About four or five days later, I remembered about him and went to check on his condition, only to find that he had died. Blood had come out of him in the same way, his hair had fallen out, and he had died with the same symptoms as the others. At the time I didn't understand how a person who had not been exposed to the bomb could later exhibit the same symptoms as those who had been in Hiroshima. At the time, nobody knew the reason.

I didn't become convinced of the reason until thirty years later, in 1976, when I went to the United Nations as a member of a national delegation bringing attention to the realities of radiation poisoning. In the United States at that time, there were many U.S. soldiers who had been exposed to radiation from nuclear tests, and as with the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, many were suffering, without doctors' being able to specify an illness for them. There were conscientious doctors in America who had examined them with dedication, and upon talking with them I first learned of the reality of internal exposure, where radiation entering the body could cause illness.

At the very instant the bomb exploded, radioactive elements were emitted on a huge scale simultaneously with the explosion, passing from the outside through people's bodies. At the same time, many of the things on the ground surface became radioactive and began to emit radiation. This is called "induced radiation," and many people got radiation poisoning in this way, even though they had not been there at the time of the explosion.

Furthermore, it was poisoning not just from external radiation but also from radioactive elements scattered by the explosion, contaminating the dust, soil, water, and the like and then entering people's bodies when they drank and ate. These radioactive substances entering the body will continue to emit radiation without depleting, destroying a person's cells bit by bit over a long period of time. This is called "internal exposure."

There are at Nagasaki University the internal organs of bomb victims. In order to verify that plutonium from the time still remained in the organs, researchers from Nagasaki University carried out tests, taking photographs of alpha rays and beta rays; they were successful with their photography last year [2008]. And this year they were able to verify that the radioactive substance that remains in the organs is plutonium from the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. In other words, the plutonium from the atomic bomb is still in the internal organs of people who were killed by that bomb sixty years ago, and it is still undergoing fission.

Taking a Stand against Nuclear Weapons

Radiation will slowly turn a healthy person into a sick one. Humankind should not be permitted to be careless about radiation until it is proven that one can become ill as a result of radiation, and until there is a method of treating that illness. Otherwise, the human race will perish from the radiation discharged by nuclear power generating plants, which appear to be on the increase.

We have been spending large sums of money on such dangerous things. Needless to say, not a single nuclear weapon must be allowed to remain. They are instruments of murder. Nor should any new ones be built; they absolutely should not be used. That is what I believe.

Countries that lack power want to have nuclear weapons so they can confront the great powers. Moreover, there are also many people who think that they can sell nuclear weapons and make a profit. These are extremely dangerous circumstances. The situation will not change simply by thinking nonchalantly that it would be better if there were no nuclear weapons. It is most important for each of us, one by one and with true conviction, to stand in solidarity with the thinking that we must sever our connection with something that can damage many generations to come.

Finally, the majority of the world apparently now thinks that there should be no nuclear weapons. Whether or not nuclear weapons will actually be eliminated will depend on your own efforts from this time onward. Please tell your children and grandchildren to stand up against nuclear weapons.