Re: History: Tomin Harada,physician for nuclear victims

[Tom Mohaupt <tom.mohaupt@wright.edu>]

The issue of multiple trauma to the Japanese A bomb survivors has always
perplexed me.  "Hiroshima" by John Hersey and other descriptive accounts
offer grim details of the psychological, physiological and radiological
trauma resultant from these devastating devices of war.  As Jack Bell
observed, almost all of the survivors suffered some kind of physical
stress, such as burns, simple and compound fractures, dehydration,
hunger,lack of medical care for several days, trauma from the blast, etc. 
The mental torment of survivors having loved ones essentially vaporized
before them or walking the streets seeking refuge among charred corpses and
dying citizens surely leaves an indelible, nightmarish memory. I am
surprised that these very serious effects have been disregarded in
evaluating subsequent cancer and health of survivor populations.  Dr.
Nagataki, Chairman of the RERF, did not mention any analyses of health
effects relative to trauma in his address to the HPS in Philadelphia.  It
appears that these confounding stresses are arbitrarily set aside and any
effect is assumed to be caused from radiation exposure.  That assumption
seems incredulous when one considers the horrific conditions of that
exposure.

As suggested by Jack Bell, the fire bombings of Tokyo resulted in most of
the same traumatic effects that the A bomb survivors experienced, without
the burden of radiation exposure.  Valuable, heuristic data could be
obtained by comparing these groups to qualify, if not quantify, the long
term effect of trauma.  We would likely find that many of the cancers in
the A bomb survivor population can be attributed to trauma, rather than
radiation exposure.

jack bell wrote:
 >
> I wonder if any special consideration and attention were given to the much
> larger numbers of mutilated and scarred victims of the bombing of Japanese
> cities with conventional bombs, especially the victims of the "fire
> bombings".
> >
 
My opinions and nothing more.
Thomas Mohaupt, M.S., CHP
University Radiation Safety Officer
 
104 Health Sciences Bldg.
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio 45424
tom.mohaupt@wright.edu
(937) 775-2169
(937) 775-3761 (fax)
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