Atomic Bomb Research Articles

Further analysis of incidence of multiple myeloma among atomic-bomb survivors, 1950 to 1994.

Multiple myeloma (MM) predominantly occurs in older persons and its diagnosis depends on pathological and laboratory findings. Epidemiological studies have provided inconsistent results on relationship between radiation exposure and MM. The Life Span Study (LSS) of atomic bomb (A-bomb) survivors has not shown a statistically significant radiation risk for MM. We studied previously reported MM cases diagnosed between 1950 and 1994 in the LSS and assessed diagnostic certainty based on histological and clinical features. Among 122 incident MM cases, 67 were classified as definite, 23, probable and 32, undetermined. The incidence rate increased with attained age and was highest in the oldest age group of over 70 years. For definite MM, Poisson regression dose response analysis showed an elevated, though not statistically significant, radiation risk with an estimated excess relative risk (ERR) per Gy of 0.44 (95%CI:<-0.02, 2.4), which was markedly higher than the previously reported ERR/Gy of -0.02 (95% CI: -0.24,0.75) that included cases with undetermined diagnostic certainty. The present case series included 24 persons with MM diagnosed after participating in M-protein screening offered to a clinical subset of the LSS members. Exclusion of screen-detected cases led to a higher radiation risk estimate, which was not statistically significant. A large number of young survivors exposed before age 20 years were younger than 70 years in the current follow-up period, but will reach ages with rapidly increasing MM rates. Future follow-up data with improved diagnostic certainty will improve understanding of long-term effects of radiation exposure on MM in this cohort.

Fetal atomic bomb survivor dosimetry using the J45 series of pregnant female phantoms with realistic survivor exposure scenarios: comparisons to dose estimates in the DS02 system.

A significant source of information on radiation-induced biological effects following in-utero irradiation stems from studies of atomic bomb survivors who were pregnant at the time of exposure in Hiroshima, and to a lesser extent, from survivors in Nagasaki. Dose estimates to the developing fetus for these survivors have been assigned in prior dosimetry systems of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation as the dose to the uterine wall within the non-pregnant adult stylized phantom, originally designed for the dosimetry system DS86 and then carried forward in DS02. In a prior study, a new J45 (Japanese 1945) series of high-resolution phantoms of the adult pregnant female at 8weeks, 15weeks, 25weeks, and 38-weeks post-conception was presented. Fetal and maternal organ doses were estimated by computationally exposing the pregnant female phantom series to DS02 free-in-air cumulative photon and neutron fluences at three distances from the hypocenter at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki under idealized frontal (AP) and isotropic (ISO) particle incidence. In this present study, this work was extended using realistic angular fluences (480 directions) from the DS02 system for seven radiation source terms, nine different radiation dose components, and five shielding conditions. In addition, to explore the effects of fetal position within the womb, four new phantoms were created and the same irradiation scenarios were performed. General findings are that the current DS02 fetal dose surrogate overestimates values of fetal organ dose seen in the J45 phantoms towards the cranial end of the fetus, especially in the later stages of pregnancy. For example, for in-open exposures at 1000m in Hiroshima, the ratio of J45 fetal brain dose to DS02 uterine wall dose is 0.90, 0.82, and 0.70 at 15weeks, 25weeks, and 38-weeks, respectively, for total gamma exposures, and are 0.64, 0.44, and 0.37 at these same gestational ages for total neutron exposures. For organs in the abdominal and pelvic regions of the fetus, dose gradients across gestational age flatten and later reverse, so that DS02 fetal dosimetry begins to underestimate values of fetal organ dose as seen in the J45 phantoms. For example, for the same exposure scenario, the ratios of J45 fetal kidney dose to DS02 uterine wall dose are about 1.09 from 15 to 38weeks for total gamma dose, and are 1.30, 1.56, and 1.75 at 15weeks, 25weeks, and 38weeks, respectively, for the total neutron dose. Results using the new fetal positioning phantoms show this trend reversing for a head-up, breach fetal position. This work supports previous findings that the J45 pregnant female phantom series offers significant opportunities for gestational age-dependent assessment of fetal organ dose without the need to invoke the uterine wall as a fetal organ surrogate.

Addressing the atomic bomb damage: Associations between ‘state compensation’ demands and aspects of survivors' suffering

AbstractTo address the long‐lasting consequences of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in 1994, the Japanese government implemented the current in‐force Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Law. This substantial policy offers medical, health and welfare measures and even incorporates some reparations‐like aspects. Nevertheless, atomic bomb survivors' organisations have severely criticised the government for failing to adequately address the entirety and inhumanity of the atomic bomb damage by refusing to enact the law on a clearly stated principle of ‘state compensation’. As such, we attempt to clarify empirically what aspects of survivors' suffering are most closely associated with their demands for ‘state compensation’. Based on statistical model‐based analysis, survivors who deem that ‘state compensation’ should be enacted experience frequent flashbacks of the bombings, disadvantaged life opportunities and economic concerns, among others. We conclude the study by considering the difficulty in addressing the consequences of nuclear weapons use and testing through programmes that approximate, but fail to establish, clear reparations‐based measures, such as the current Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Law.

Forgotten Clones: The Birth of Cloning and the Biological Revolution. By NathanCrowe. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. 2021. pp. 336. $60 (Hardcover).

Forgotten Clones: The Birth of Cloning and the Biological Revolution. By NathanCrowe. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. 2021. pp. 336. $60 (Hardcover).

Introduction to Special Issue: The Limits of Nuclear Discourse

The articles in this special issue explore the limits of nuclear representation and discourse via analyses of Japanese literature, photographs, animated television shows, and social media posts. Through these media, the authors delve into the subjectivity of disaster victims – children, youth, women, national subjects, foreigners, humans, and animals – and cross the temporal networks connecting the atomic bombs, the Cold War, the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and the COVID-19 pandemic as they navigate the nexus of government power, technological narratives, and ecological destruction. Writing from the perspective of 2023, over a decade after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdowns, the issue looks back to this critical moment to consider how the disaster realigns Japan’s history of the nuclear, changes both the domestic and global narrative, questions our understanding of our human subjectivity, and impacts the planetary ecology. The hindsight of a decade allows for a wider vista, a chance to reconsider the Fukushima disaster itself and reassess its rupture, but also its historical placement following the atomic bombs and an era of economic and social collapse, as well as the ongoing repercussions of the 2011 disaster during the more recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Designing The Authority: Dams, High Modernity, and Colonial Temporal Containment

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s dams are the culmination of a high modern design ideology, spatio-temporal land-use imaginary, and geography of containment. Many hydroelectric dams were erected in the 700-mile watershed. The energy fueled the manufacture of bombers, missiles, and the atomic bomb. The Authority had unprecedentedly broad purview, from constructing fertilizer factories, coal-fired plants, and nuclear facilities to becoming involved in education and public health. The Authority model crafted a developmental reasoning for militarized involvement across the Earth. The dams were called a pathway to liberal democracy, yet environmental devastation, racism, and Indigenous displacement were inherent, as documented by the NAACP, and the flooding of Indigenous cities. MoMA’s 1941 exhibit named the settler-colonial infrastructure an art object. The dam is a hydraulic monument to coloniality. Art institutions, engineers, and designers are implicated. As these containers decay, we must begin to see once-modern futures as already breached, leaking, shattered.

Establishment of a Medical System for Emergency Radiation Exposure (One local city in Japan)

Introduction:Japan is the only country to have experienced the atomic bombings and still has many nuclear power plants. In 2011, a nuclear power plant accident occurred during a major magnitude 9.0 earthquake, and there was a great deal of concern about radiation exposure medicine for the public. It is necessary to provide appropriate radiation exposure medicine.Method:The facility is located within the IAEA's UPZ, and in the event of an emergency, it is necessary to provide medical care for a large number of people exposed to radiation, so an advanced radiation exposure medical facility was built in 2015 (the surrounding population is approximately 300,000).Results:The basics of radiation exposure medicine are: 1) medical priority, 2) prevention of the spread of radioactive materials, and 3) protection of our responders from radiation exposure. Everything from whole body assessments, contamination examinations due to exposure, medical procedures (including advanced medical procedures), and decontamination were able to be performed. The facility is also equipped with WBC (whole body counter) that can assess internal exposure. A support system for other medical facilities was being developed in the region by forming a team that can respond to radiation exposure.Conclusion:With the current system, not only radiation exposure medicine will be handled, but also CBRNE and other such services in the future. For this reason, repeated training and human resource development are very important.

THE ROLE OF SOVIET JEWS IN BUILDING THE ISRAELI NUCLEAR ARSENAL (THE DIMONA REACTOR AS A MODEL) NINEVEH EDUCATION DIRECTORATE

The Israeli nuclear file is considered one of the biggest secrets of nuclear life in the world, if (Israel) refuses, since its establishment,to be included in the periodic inspections conducted by the Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear facilities in the world, just as its government refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed by the Arab countries. Which makes the Israeli nuclear file (out of coverage). (Israel) possesses a basic nuclear reactor، as it was the first step it took regarding the establishment of a nuclear force in late (1948)AD and early (1949)AD. The most important and most dangerous effective step taken by (Israel) on the road to producing nuclear weapons for nuclear energy in(Israel)was its establishment of(the Dimona reactor.). This reactor was built according to French designs drawn up by the French atomic Energy Commission as part of the French-Israeli efforts to coordinate in the field of atomic cooperation. The Dimona reactor is located on the desert road between Beersheba and Sodom، in the Negev Center for Nuclear Research. It consists of ten buildings. It contains a nuclear reactor and a reprocessing plant. Plutonium This place was chosen because of its proximity to the raw materials (uranium) found in the Negev desert. The costs of building the reactor were estimated at about (130) million dollars, and its capacity was (150) megawatts, and it was able to produce (8) kilos of plutonium annually. The reactor operates with enriched uranium. (90%), which is a reactor that produces plutonium، which is the main element for the production of the fissile atomic bomb, since the Jews of Russian origins had a great and most prominent influence in the establishment of the Israeli nuclear program, as they pushed the Israeli nuclear file into existence. And they put (Israel) at the forefront of the nuclear countries

越境する在韓被爆者と日本の連帯運動

This paper examines the aspects of the border-crossing actions of Korean atomic bomb survivors in South Korea and the solidarity movements that arose in Japan around these actions, with a focus on the “illegal entry” by Son Gwi-dal and the attempt of seeking for medical treatment in Japan by Eom Bun-ryeon and Im Bok-sun in 1968. Using testimonies and writings of A-bomb suvivors, journalists' reports, documentary films, newspaper articles, and diplomatic records, the paper highlights the meaning and historical significance of their crossing-border actions and Japan's citizens' solidarity movements.&#x0D; Incident was an act of crossing a boundary drawn by the law and treaty that ignored colonial responsibility, which aimed to “resolve completely and finally” through the Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Treaty. Their atempts to cross the boundary were not only to cross the border established between Korea and Japan, but also to cross the boundary between Japanese victims in Japan and those overseas.&#x0D; In the late 1960s, some Korean atomic bomb survivors emerged as people who appealed for compensation to the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, wrote their experiences as victims, or expressed their situation and hopes in meetings, films, and books, rather than being merely objects of pity. We consider Son Gwi-dal, Eom Bun-ryeon and Im Bok-sun's stowaway as symbolic actions that mark the beginning of Korean atomic bomb survivors' emergence as agents.&#x0D; Meanwhile, their border-crossing acts greatly shocked those who were engaged in Japan's anti-nuclear power movement or civil society. Those who became interested in Korean atomic bomb survivors recognized their historical significance through their border-crossing acts and introduced their writings and meetings, published books, made and screened films, and sought solidarity with them by reflecting on the nationalistic “peace” that regarded the atomic bombing victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as sacrifices of “post-war Japanese” and positioning Korean victims of colonialism in history, thereby questioning the Korea-Japan Treaty System that disregarded colonial responsibility.

Effects of Surroundings: A Psychoanalysis Critique of the Forty Rules of Love

The research deals with the psychological analysis of one of characters of Elif Shafak’s novel “The forty rules of Love”. The character that has been chosen for psychoanalysis is named as Ella. She is a forty years old woman who is suffering from a mental conflict and the reason being is the changing conditions around her. The research has been conducted by analyzing her character and her dialogues. The research is qualitative, keeping in view Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, the character has been analyzed. The major focus has been on Freud’s theory of id, ego and superego. The novel deals with impending enigma in minds of people, the impact of the modern world on society and thoughts of people. This research deals with one aspect of it and that is existentialism. It is of great importance with respect to the 19th and 20th centuries because it highlights the inner psychology of person. The character of Ella is also a victim of sudden changing conditions around her. Majority of the modern writers have brought this topic into focus. After World War I and II, people went into chaos not only physically but mentally as well. The reason was a mere shift in their views about development, science and technology. As the century progressed, man invented many new ways for his protection. The one being invention of atomic bombs and guns. People thought of these inventions as their protection gods. After World War and especially the attacks on Hiroshima and Naga Saki, their gods turned into evil beings causing destruction to themselves rather than their enemies. This brought an immense change in the brains of people. When they lost their loved ones, their companions, their business and everything they had, they started questioning themselves. Who are they? Who is their creator? What is their nature? What do they live for? Why are they living? Where they would go after death? Is there any life after death? The character of Ella also became a victim to unexpected changing situations around her but within her family, and passing through traumatic condition. The research further opens the way for similar approaches to be used in other literary works.

Hanga and Manga

In this paper, I will discuss the Popular Woodcut Movement that emerged in Japan following its defeat in 1945 and continued during and after the Occupation period by General Headquarters. Popular woodblock printing was developed during the Chinese Revolution in 1949 and raised issues such as the relationship between the Enlightenment and socialists’ fine arts movement (puroretaria bijutsu undo, literally “proletarian fine arts movement”) or the Communist Party and popular club activities movements around then. The second part will turn to Nakazawa Keiji’s Hadashi no Gen, also known as Barefoot Gen: Life After a Bomb, A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima published in 1972. Nakawaza Keiji and Hadashi no Gen have some connections to the Popular Woodblock Printing Movement. He is a successor of the proletarian cultural/fine arts movement before and during wartime, accepting the legacy of the generation of his father, who also was a painter and artist. Barefoot Gen united the bodily practice of atomic bomb victims who suffered horrible disfigurations, with the personal/public struggles, and the idea of personal vengeance and socio-ethical justice. In addition, its visual-narrative structure subverts the Kant-Heideggerian epistemological hierarchy that presupposes a developmental progress from a lower to a higher level. This epistemological hierarchy is a power structure that has been problematized by feminist discourse because of re-producing an unequal distribution of knowledge. Thus, Barefoot Gen is an epistemological and aesthetic achievement essential for subaltern hegemony. The postwar popular woodcut movement had a common aim with Barefoot Gen to resolve the unequal distribution of knowledge, sharing a legacy of modern visual movements as an incomplete visual-aesthetic revolution. This paper claims that the postwar woodcut movement and Nakazawa Keiji’s manga were successors of the socialist/communist cultural movement during the prewar time and they wrestle with the debates within the fine arts circles of the times.

The Effect of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Test on Radiation Risk Estimate for Prostate Cancer Incidence among Atomic-Bomb Survivors.

Following our previous report on the radiation dose-response for prostate cancer incidence rates in the Life Span Study (LSS) cohort of atomic bomb survivors, we reevaluated the radiation-related risk adjusting for differences in baseline cancer incidence rates among three subsets of the LSS cohort defined by the timing of their first participation in biennial health examinations offered to the Adult Health Study (AHS) sub-cohort members and prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) testing status for AHS participants: 1. non-AHS participants, 2. AHS participants before receiving PSA test, and 3. AHS participants after receiving PSA test. We found a 2.9-fold increase in the baseline incidence rates among AHS participants after receiving PSA test. After adjusting for the PSA-testing-status effects on the baseline rates the estimated excess relative risk (ERR) per Gy was 0.54 (95% CI: 0.15, 1.05), which was almost identical to the previously reported unadjusted ERR estimate (0.57, 95% CI: 0.21, 1.00). The current results confirmed that, while the PSA testing among AHS participants increased the baseline incidence rates, it did not impact the radiation risk estimate, strengthening the previously reported dose-response relationship for prostate cancer incidence in the LSS. As the use of PSA tests continue in screening and medical settings, analyses of possible effects of PSA testing should be an important aspect of future epidemiological studies of the association between radiation exposure and prostate cancer.

Faith in Self

Abstract In 1994, I migrated to New York City to pursue my art, freedom, and potential. Over the last 27 years, I learned to understand and respect the differences of people with different values, genders, religions, and races. I continued self-transforming by looking at issues from different angles with flexible thinking. Living far away from Japan, I reaffirmed my roots and rediscovered myself objectively. It’s especially interesting to me that the relationship between Japan and the United States has been strengthened through the atomic bomb. Behind this is the influence of Shinto and Buddhism on the Japanese way of thinking. Their teachings play a major role in peace operations. In addition, the power of faith is sometimes abused, and serious social problems are occurring. “Kusudama” means medicine ball. In my Peace and Harmony Workshop, many individual participants, who all experienced the same pandemic disaster, created medicine balls while sharing our common wishes for health, long life, and peace. Faith is, to me, the power to believe in ourselves. The symbolic work of a sphere, connecting faith and art, opens up a world full of charity, not division. Looking back on what I learned through my life and artwork, I consider and write about what kind of future we hope for, and what role religion and art can play.

Effects of Internal Exposure of Radioactive 56MnO2 Particles on the Lung in C57BL Mice

The investigation of the radiation effects of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has revealed concerns about the impact of the residual radioactive dust produced in the soil. Manganese-56 is one of the major radioisotopes produced by neutrons from the bomb; hence, we previously examined the biological effects of manganese dioxide-56 (56MnO2) in Wistar rats, in which significant changes were found in the lung. In the present study, ten-week-old male C57BL mice were exposed to three doses of radioactive 56MnO2, stable MnO2 particles, or external γ-rays (2 Gy) to further examine the effects of 56MnO2 in a different species. The estimated absorbed radiation doses from 56MnO2 were 26, 96, and 250 mGy in the lung. The animals were examined at 3, 14, and 70 days post exposure. Histologically, no exposure-related changes were found in the lungs of any group. However, pulmonary mRNA expression of aquaporin 1, which is a useful marker for lung pathophysiology, was significantly elevated at 14 and 70 days, although no such changes were found in the mice exposed to external γ-rays (2 Gy). These data indicated that the inhalation exposure to 56MnO2 particles, with <250 mGy of organ doses, produced significant biological responses in the lung.

Radiation-induced bystander effect and its clinical implications.

For many years, targeted DNA damage caused by radiation has been considered the main cause of various biological effects. Based on this paradigm, any small amount of radiation is harmful to the organism. Epidemiological studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors have proposed the linear-non-threshold model as the dominant standard in the field of radiation protection. However, there is increasing evidence that the linear-non-threshold model is not fully applicable to the biological effects caused by low dose radiation, and theories related to low dose radiation require further investigation. In addition to the cell damage caused by direct exposure, non-targeted effects, which are sometimes referred to as bystander effects, abscopal effects, genetic instability, etc., are another kind of significant effect related to low dose radiation. An understanding of this phenomenon is crucial for both basic biomedical research and clinical application. This article reviews recent studies on the bystander effect and summarizes the key findings in the field. Additionally, it offers a cross-sectional comparison of bystander effects caused by various radiation sources in different cell types, as well as an in-depth analysis of studies on the potential biological mechanisms of bystander effects. This review aims to present valuable information and provide new insights on the bystander effect to enlighten both radiobiologists and clinical radiologists searching for new ways to improve clinical treatments.

An Atomic Age Unleashed

Abstract While tens of thousands of Koreans were subject to the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, early peninsular analysis of the bombings rarely grappled with the existence of these individuals. The general exclusion of colonial subjects from the story of the atomic bombings has long been identified as part of a nationalization of the wartime years, a move that situates the history of the attacks as a specifically Japanese experience. Less understood is how postcolonial intellectuals in Korea encouraged this historiographical trend. Across the peninsula, a common commitment to the idea of science as emancipatory enabled postcolonial Korean writers to conflate political liberation with advancements in the field of atomic science. This fusion of postcolonial developmentalism and atomic scientism, common in both the North and the South between 1945 and 1950, drowned out the critical temporalities introduced by peninsular survivors of the atomic attacks. This article outlines the historiographical obstacles Korean bomb victims posed to emancipatory accounts of the attacks. Postcolonial bomb victims were interpolated into a postwar community that was physiologically unable to leave the fact of the bombings in a colonial past.

Re-understanding Hsue-shen Tsien&amp;rsquo;s thoughts on technological sciences

<p indent="0mm">Hsue-shen Tsien’s thoughts on technological sciences represent the most important treasure among various aspects of Hsue-shen Tsien’s thoughts. His thoughts on technological sciences not only played a pivotal role in the development of atomic and hydrogen bombs as well as man-made satellites, but also are of significant implications under the current international circumstances, in which the competition of national core technologies among different countries becomes increasingly intensive. To clarify the role of Hsue-shen Tsien’s thoughts on technological sciences in the layout and planning of science and technology in our country, this paper discusses and clarifies the attributes and correlations among technology, science, engineering, technological sciences and engineering technology. This paper reviews the ideological origins of technological sciences, and analyzes the recent developments of natural sciences and technological sciences. Then, it illustrates the foundational roles that technological sciences play in the development of emerging technology. The relationship between technological sciences and various relevant disciplines is also analyzed. Furthermore, this paper discusses the influence and enlightenment of Hsue-shen Tsien’s thoughts on technological sciences on the training and evaluation of relevant talents, aiming to provide some references for implementing the strategy of science and technology in the new era.

Discordant Memories: Atomic Age Narratives and Visual Culture by Alison Fields

Reviewed by: Discordant Memories: Atomic Age Narratives and Visual Culture by Alison Fields Robert (Bo) Jacobs (bio) Discordant Memories: Atomic Age Narratives and Visual Culture By Alison Fields. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Pp. 256. "Containment—the process of gaining control over something harmful," writes Alison Fields, "is a key mechanism for responding to traumatic memories" (p. 16). Her book proceeds to explore nuclear-themed artwork as locations where the containment of nuclear memories has fractured, revealing a disjointed and evolving memory culture in the wake of Hiroshima. Fields opens with an exploration of the so-called "Hiroshima Maidens," twenty-five young women who experienced the nuclear attack on Hiroshima as children and were brought to the United States ten years later to receive reconstructive and plastic surgeries. This bold start establishes that institutions may strive to contain historical traumas in narratives of event, impact, and consequence, but they are better understood as organic and living beyond the memorialized event, just as the bodies of those who endured it. The book then contrasts the formal memorializations of the attacks in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, these museums exemplifying the "discordant memories" of the title. Although the official curations—in service to the communities in which they are embedded—seem to describe disparate events, it is on the "leaking" of memory culture beyond both of these containers that the book centers its analysis. Fields argues that "the experience of atomic trauma cannot be contained" (p. 80), then proceeds to lay out several chapters detailing this dynamic. These chapters explore a series of pieces by artists and writers working in multiple media who deconstruct and reenvision memory cultures of the nuclear attacks, augmenting their trajectories of inheritance. Many are master practitioners within their medium. Of particular note are the participatory [End Page 625] and responsive multimedia works by Shinpei Takeda, the range of historical and topical focuses of various members of the Atomic Photographers Guild, and the photographic explorations of Navajo uranium mining landscapes by Will Wilson. An examination of the role of manga in reproducing and then leaking outside of the formal Japanese Hiroshima narrative and the tension between survivor testimonies and official curation also reveal the vitality of this leaking. Though it also surveys "atomic bomb literature" produced in Japan in the decades following the nuclear attacks, the book is at its best when analyzing visual artwork. Fields asserts that "visual expressions of memory offer possibilities for resisting linear, closed-off narratives of the past and for reflecting the continuing, and often cyclical, nature of trauma" (p. 19). We are fortunate the book includes seventeen full-color photographic plates that allow us to encounter a number of the original works that Fields describes. Fields uses her inquiry to guide readers through the growing awareness that the 1945 nuclear attacks were not the solitary moments of nuclear harm on human beings and communities: to contextualize some of the artwork, she walks readers through the history of nuclear testing and uranium mining. This is most evident in the discussion of the work of members of the Atomic Photographers Guild, many of whom played a central role in foregrounding this ongoing history through their work. The fact that the Guild includes the work of Yoshito Matsushige, the only photographer to capture images on the actual day of one of the nuclear attacks on Japan, links the visualization of direct nuclear attack with ongoing assaults on human beings and the ecosystem during the Cold War. In tracing how Hiroshima has continued leaking out of its curatorial containment, Fields shows us a history that is alive and imbricated with human beings who experienced the direct attack and all of us who continue to inherit and live amid its historical ripples. I was particularly interested in the complicated relationships that many of the pieces imply between radiologically affected communities in the United States and Hiroshima as both place and mythic icon. I welcome work that pursues that fault line, both artistically and politically, as well as work that extends this analysis into the many other sites of nuclear harm around the world. A second generation of scholars...

Frankenthaler, woodcuts and Japan

Helen Frankenthaler was five days short of her thirteenth birthday when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941, causing the United States finally to enter the Second World War. She was 16 in August 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, putting an end to the war. Yet, despite the fact that Japan had been the Enemy, many Americans – including many American artists – became fascinated with Japan and its culture in the years following the war. This article details the particular importance of Japan in the creation of the works in the exhibition Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, in 2021–22 – Frankenthaler’s extraordinary woodcuts.

Preleukemic Fusion Genes Induced via Ionizing Radiation

Although the prevalence of leukemia is increasing, the agents responsible for this increase are not definitely known. While ionizing radiation (IR) was classified as a group one carcinogen by the IARC, the IR-induced cancers, including leukemia, are indistinguishable from those that are caused by other factors, so the risk estimation relies on epidemiological data. Several epidemiological studies on atomic bomb survivors and persons undergoing IR exposure during medical investigations or radiotherapy showed an association between radiation and leukemia. IR is also known to induce chromosomal translocations. Specific chromosomal translocations resulting in preleukemic fusion genes (PFGs) are generally accepted to be the first hit in the onset of many leukemias. Several studies indicated that incidence of PFGs in healthy newborns is up to 100-times higher than childhood leukemia with the same chromosomal aberrations. Because of this fact, it has been suggested that PFGs are not able to induce leukemia alone, but secondary mutations are necessary. PFGs also have to occur in specific cell populations of hematopoetic stem cells with higher leukemogenic potential. In this review, we describe the connection between IR, PFGs, and cancer, focusing on recurrent PFGs where an association with IR has been established.