When did people first become aware that there was a danger of radiation exposure?
Unfortunately, as history indicates, the U.S. occupational forces hid the truth about the danger of radiation so that we didn’t know about the danger for many, many months – I think for even over a year. In fact, I don’t remember hearing about the danger of radiation until I came back to the U.S. in 1948. And my friends hadn’t heard about it. That’s why many people stayed in Hiroshima, which compounded the effects of the radiation. Since people stayed, they got more and more contaminated. The danger of radiation decreased as time went by, but for example, we heard that plants were not going to grow again for a long time, but we were never told the scientific reason. We didn’t know if it was true or just a rumor that plants and grass were not going to grow in Hiroshima for another 75 years. Why do you think the experiences of atomic bomb survivors were different than those of other wartime bombing victims? Well, we must realize that many scientists have said that the aftereffects of ato
