nuclear-news

Red Cross Hospital in Japan continuing to treat nuclear bomb victims – the hibakusha

The waiting room of the Red Cross hospital in downtown Hiroshima is always
crowded. Nearly every available seat is occupied, often by elderly people
waiting for their names to be called. Many of these men and women don’t
have typical medical histories, however. They are the surviving victims of
the American atomic bomb attack 79 years ago.

Not many Americans have Aug. 6 circled on their calendars, but it’s a day that the Japanese can’t forget. Even now, the hospital continues to treat, on average, 180
survivors — known as hibakusha — of the blasts each day.

When the United States dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the
entire citizenries of both countries were working feverishly to win World
War II. For most Americans, the bomb represented a path to victory after
nearly four relentless years of battle and a technological advance that
would cement the nation as a geopolitical superpower for generations. Our
textbooks talk about the world’s first use of a nuclear weapon.

Many today in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the United States detonated a bomb
just three days later, talk about how those horrible events must be the
last uses of nuclear weapons.

 New York Times 6th Aug 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/06/opinion/hiroshima-nagasaki-atomic-bombing.html

August 11, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Japan