“The Bomb After the Bomb”
Hiroshima is a well known atomic bombing against the Japanese Empire which occurred on August 6, 1945 by the United States toward the end of World War II. Three days later Nagasaki, Japan was also bombed.
Ordered by President Harry S. Truman “Little Boy” was the name of the atomic weapon dropped on Hiroshima and “Fat Man” on Nagasaki.
Many books and movies have been made concerning what lead up to the bombings, and the after effects as well as the survivors. A less known sub topic that is in study is the diagnostic and therapeutic radiation exposure levels of the survivors.
The immediate effects of the A Bomb in Hiroshima were 70,000 deaths, and “Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death”. [1] By the end of 1945, lack of medical sources, radiation, burns and consequent diseases brought the death toll up to 90,000 to 140,000. By 1950 200,000 had died from long term effects such as cancer.
Studies and clinics have been dedicated to the treatment and study of the long term after effects of this level of radiation exposure. Consequently, radiation therapy is used to treat the cancer caused by Hiroshima. Diagnostic therapy is used to screen for new and existing tumors as well as for other general health purposes for the survivors that may not be necessary had they not been exposed. Survivors who were blasted by an immense amount of radiation then spent the rest of their lives being exposed in smaller, but steady amounts as doctors tried to heal them and scientist studied them.
A review of thirty year atomic bomb survivors was published in 1975 and released in 2006. It clearly demonstrates that diagnostic and therapeutic radiation altered the level of radiation in the evaluations of survivors.
Hiroshima subjects within three months received x-rays at a rate of 23% and it was apparent that x-ray examinations were much more frequent in survivors than subject who were not affected by the...