Atomic Bomb Research Articles

Camptown Dwelling: Environment and Survival in Memories of My Ghost Brother

Abstract: The representation of environmental injustice in Heinz Insu Fenkl's novel Memories of My Ghost Brother (1996) has yet to be examined. This neglect suggests a need to open up the dialogue between Fenkl's work, which is relatively invisible beyond Asian American and postcolonial studies, and ecocriticism. Memories of My Ghost Brother shows that the impoverished, noxious, and dangerous conditions and pervasive diseases in Korean camptowns are socially engineered by the United States-Republic of Korea neocolonial system that on the one hand disregards camptowns' infrastructural needs and on the other hand allows the US military to wreak environmental damage with impunity. Specifically, the novel portrays pervasive dust, flooding sewage, the noise from US military activities, and the dangerous live ammunition left by the US military after their training. Without reducing camptown residents to mere victims, the novel also depicts the survival strategies they have adopted. The novel further situates camptowns within the context of the ongoing environmental atrocities committed by the US military across Asia. Fenkl's depictions of the dire situation in camptowns and the toxic legacies from the atomic bomb and Agent Orange challenge the narrative of American benevolence in Korea.

Psychological meanings reported by patients with Graves’ Disease in hyperthyroidism but without ophthalmopathy about their quotidian life: A qualitative study conducted in a Brazilian university specialized outpatient service

IntroductionTo handle well clinical treatments, it is crucial to know the expectations of patients who seek help. We need to ask ourselves: how do patients interpret subjectively their diagnosis, treatments, and self-care? Medical Psychology brings us theories for this understanding. Grave’s Disease is an autoimmune disorder, a form of hyperthyroidism with a goitre, affecting also the eyes and the skin, as well as emotional manifestations. Weight loss, sometimes psychologically welcome, although due to a disease, can mean a psychoanalytic secondary gain. So, the medicine that leads to clinical improvement can be taken with ambivalence and bad adherence to treatment. It is important to differentiate between disease, a scientific entity explained by the clinical professional, and illness as a patient’s subjective perception of an un-health.ObjectivesTo understand psychodynamically the fantasies, desires, and views related to Graves’ Disease as reported by patients in hyperthyroidism but without ophthalmopathy interviewed at an endocrinology-specialized outpatient clinic. (in the EPA-2023, it was presented the qualitative results of a sample in hyperthyroidism, with ophthalmopathy, studied at the same service).MethodsClinical-Qualitative Method designed by Turato. Data collected through Semi-Directed Interviews with Open-ended Questions in-Depth; and Field Notes, transcript fully. Treated by the Seven Steps of Clinical-Qualitative Content Analysis of Faria-Schützer, using psychodynamic concepts from Balintian Medical Psychology. Although we have extracted categories that permit us interesting discussions, we intend to close the sample (through the information saturation criterion by Fontanella) when we obtain other categories. The interviewer, a male psychologist, is the first author. The findings are validated by peer-reviewers of the Lab of Clinical Qualitative Research of the State University of Campinas.ResultsThree categories were chosen for this presentation: 1) “An atomic bomb in my life”: How drastic changes of a hormonal disease re-symbolize the patient’s life; 2) “I didn’t think the thyroid did that much”: the disease seen as a metaphor in a psychological blaming language to own disease and to himself as a sick person. 3) “I have so much medicine!”: a mode of referring to treatment that would justify an undisciplined use of medications.ConclusionsOur findings can help clinical professionals to have a better understanding of some psychological meanings which have sense in the patients’ conscience, often not verbalized clearly in the conversation, and so to handle better the patients and relatives. In this way, it can reduce the patient’s resistance to recommended treatment, as well as encourage the clinical team to construct empathy with them.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

The atomic bomb, exile and a test of brotherly bonds: Robert and Frank Oppenheimer

The atomic bomb, exile and a test of brotherly bonds: Robert and Frank Oppenheimer

The Historiography of “Hitler’s Atomic Bomb”

This essay analyzes the historiography of the German attempts during the Second World War to develop and harness the economic and military applications of uranium fission as well as the postwar “politics of the past.” This literature, which began immediately after the end of the war and continues to the present day, includes contributions from scientists, historians, journalists, playwrights, and other authors. The essay is divided into mostly chronological sections.

Nuclear spacecraft: from dream to reality

Launching rockets into space with atomic bombs is a crazy idea that was thankfully discarded many decades ago. But as Richard Corfield discovers, the potential of using the energy from nuclear-powered engines to drive space travel is back on NASA’s agenda.

Review: The First Atomic Bomb: The Trinity Site in New Mexico, by Janet Farrell Brodie

Review: <i>The First Atomic Bomb: The Trinity Site in New Mexico</i>, by Janet Farrell Brodie

Contribution of radioactive particles to the post-explosion exposure of atomic bomb survivors implied from their stable chromosome aberration rates.

Even today when nearly 80 years have passed after the atomic bomb (A-bomb) was dropped, there are still debates about the exact doses received by the A-bomb survivors. While initial airborne kerma radiation (or energy spectrum of emitted radiation) can be measured with sufficient accuracy to assess the radiation dose to A-bomb survivors, it is not easy to accurately assess the neutron dose including appropriate weighting of neutron absorbed dose. Particularly, possible post-explosion exposure due to the radioactive particles generated through neutron activation have been almost neglected so far, mainly because of a large uncertainty associated to the behavior of those particles. However, it has been supposed that contribution of such non-initial radiation exposure from the neutron-induced radioactive particles could be significant, according to the findings that the stable chromosomal aberration rates which indicate average whole-body radiation doses were found to be more than 30% higher for those exposed indoors than for those outdoors even at the same initial dose estimated for the Life Span Study. In this Mini Review article, the authors explain that such apparently controversial observations can be reasonably explained by assuming a higher production rate of neutron-induced radioactive particles in the indoor environment near the hypocenter.

Nuclear War as It Looks

Currently, there are practically no people left who have seen the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. This is the reason for certain frivolous statements about the advisability of using tactical nuclear weapons to solve certain tactical problems. The purpose of this work is to remind, using the example of the consequences of the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how does the nuclear war looks like in reality. Materials and Methods. Open sources from the Cold War era and more recent reviews of the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons were analyzed. The analysis was carried out from general to specific, i.e. from the understanding of physical processes underlying a nuclear explosion and determining the design of the nuclear devices, to the specific consequences of their use. Discussion. The article analyses the history of the creation of the «Gadget», «Fat Man» and «Kid» bombs, their design, preparation and the results of the use. Detailed descriptions of nuclear explosions and the consequences of their use, made both by those who used nuclear weapons and by those against whom they were used, are provided. Being imperfect in design and ineffective in using fissile matter, they showed stunning power even for the present time, destroying two densely populated cities and at least 106 thousand people at once. Real examples show the features of the destruction of engineering objects and the impact on people of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. Attention is drawn to the fact that the power of the bombs used was 15 and 22 kt, respectively. According to modern NATO classification, these are tactical nuclear weapons. It is designed to destroy targets in the tactical depth of enemy troop deployment (up to 300 km). The maximum power of tactical ammunition according to NATO standards is up to 100 kt. It means that the yield of the tactical ammunition used in battle will depend on the tactical mission, and not be limited to a few kilotons. Conclusions. The use of tactical nuclear weapons without escalating their power, causing large casualties among the population and the risk of being drawn into a global nuclear war is impossible. Currently, the world is oversaturated with nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. Some countries possess them secretly, others have the potential to create such weapons. Therefore, any use of nuclear weapons by anyone will lead to the lowering of the threshold of nuclear deterrence. It will become a common thing during the resolution of military conflicts.

Revisiting Taylor’s analysis of the Trinity test

Abstract The atomic bomb uses fission of heavy elements to produce a large amount of energy. It was designed and deployed during World War II by the United States military. The first test of an atomic bomb occurred in July 1945 in New Mexico and was given the name Trinity; this test was not declassified until 1949. In that year, Geoffrey Ingram Taylor released two papers detailing his process in calculating the energy yield of the atomic bomb from pictures of the Trinity explosion alone. Many scientists made similar calculations concurrently, although Taylor is often accredited with them. Since then, many scientists have also attempted to calculate a yield through various methods. This paper walks through these methods with a focus on Taylor’s method—based on first principles—as well as redoing the calculations that he performed with modern tools. In this paper, we make use of state-of-the-art computer vision tools to find a more precise measurement of the blast radius, as well as using curve fitting and numerical integration methods. With more precise measurements we are able to follow in Taylor’s footstep toward a more accurate approximation.

The Implications of the Atomic Bomb for International Relations

The Implications of the Atomic Bomb for International Relations

Nuclear astrophysicists at war

AbstractThe question of energy production in stars stimulated an entire generation of young physicists in the 1930s who came to work in this field exploring the fundamentals of quantum and nuclear physics. Their experience and methodologies were essential to the Manhattan Project, facilitating the rapid development of the atomic bomb. The experience and knowledge gained from the Manhattan Project then flowed back to nuclear astrophysics after the war and led to its further development. This paper is motivated by the question that was raised in the film Oppenheimer, which asks whether “a bomb can set the atmosphere on fire?”. Seeking an answer requires a close intellectual exchange between the physics of the atomic bomb and the physics of stellar burning; this exchange is the topic of this paper.

Binary regression model with misclassification and Berkson-type measurement error with student-t distribution

In this article, we introduce a regression model tailored for fitting binary data affected by misclassification in the response variable and Berkson-type measurement error in the covariate. The conventional assumption of a normal distribution for measurement error may inadequately represent atypical observations present in the dataset. To address this limitation, our model incorporates misclassification in the response variable and Berksontype measurement error, employing the Student-t distribution for more robust modeling of these atypical observations. We utilize the cumulative distribution function from the Student-t distribution as the link function, enhancing our ability to capture the dataset’s unique characteristics. Model parameters are estimated via the maximum likelihood method. We conduct a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study to thoroughly assess the impact of measurement errors and misclassification. Additionally, we apply the proposed model to a real-world dataset of survivors from the atomic bombing in Japan, showcasing its adaptability and suitability in practical scenarios. Our findings highlight the robustness and flexibility of this model in effectively handling complex binary regression scenarios involving measurement errors and misclassification.

The Life and Travails of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Nuclear Scientist

‘Oppenheimer’ is a 2023 epic, biographical film about an American theoretical physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer. He is considered the “father of the atomic bomb”. The film is brilliantly written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film, based on the 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, chronicles the complex and consequential career of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The story begins with Oppenheimer's postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge (England) and at the University of Göttingen (Germany), details his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II in developing nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico (USA), and ends with his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing based on the false premise that J. Robert Oppenheimer was a communist spy who was passing secret information on nuclear research to the Soviet Union. Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ is the pinnacle of movie making. Nolan has delicately interwoven the intricate domains of quantum physics, human ingenuity, cruel politics, morality, legality, and ethics into a timely masterpiece and into an explosive emotional thriller. The four principal cast members (1) Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, (2) Emily Blunt as Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer (wife), (3) Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, and (4) Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss perform their role flawlessly. Murphy, in particular, uncannily acts and resembles the real─life J. Robert Oppenheimer. In addition, the performances by Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock and by Tom Conti as Albert Einstein are superb. The story is told in alternating black and white (Strauss’ version of events) and color (Oppenheimer’s version of events) scenes. The haunting musical score by Ludwig Göransson synchronizes perfectly with the movie plot. When the bomb explodes at the Trinity climax scene, the sound goes totally silent! Oppenheimer’s story is the real─life vindication of the truth after 68 years (1954─2022). A must watch Nolan’s thriller for this Nuclear Age! Thus, the said movie has triggered me to make an attempt to comprehensively capture the chronology of events covering 153 years of history (1870─2023) associated with J. Robert Oppenheimer, some events not covered in the movie plot is included in this review article with 48 Figures and 8 Appendixes. The purpose is to permanently etch in history the scientific contributions made by J. Robert Oppenheimer and by his colleagues at the Manhattan Project, which not only ended the World War II, but also sprung open a new world of freedom for humanity. Let there be no doubt that J. Robert Oppenheimer was a genuine patriotic American of our time and therefore, my only fervent hope is that our generation acknowledges, remembers, and admires their contributions and sacrifices, without which the fragile freedom that we enjoy today, even after 80 years later, would not have been possible. His legacy is one of historical greatness.

A Study on the Trends of Korean Atomic Bomb Literature and Its Epic Reproduction：Focusing on “Discrimination against Korean Atomic Bomb Victims” Expressed in Novels and Poems

This article analyzes the current status and varied aspects of Korean atomic bomb literature, which portrays the harm suffered by Korean atomic bomb victims in August 1945, and examines how discrimination against Korean atomic bomb victims was expressed in literary works. It also cites Japanese atomic bomb literature and shows that this same discrimination is present there, in doing so presenting both its similarities and differences with Korean works. According to Korean atomic bomb literature, the harm incurred by Korean victims of the atomic bomb and that of Japanese people is completely different. In particular, the paper looks at the ways in which Korean atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were discriminated against before and after the bombing through the identification of keywords [e.g., crows, AIGO (Oh my!), Omoni (Mother)] in Korean and Japanese atomic bomb novels and poems. In this process, it became clear that these keywords are used both in Korean atomic bomb literature and in some Japanese literature to convey discrimination against Korean atomic bomb victims and the cruelty inflicted by the use of the atomic bomb.

Communications in a Nuclear Age

The Nuclear Age, sometimes called the Atomic Age or the Atomic Era, refers to the period of time following the first atomic bomb during the Second World War. This is a time period with major implications in the history of science as well as ethics, the military, and international relations. Communication is the vital link between nuclear facilities and the public. If people do not know and understand the facts on which optimal energy choice decisions should be based, they cannot make informed decisions on how their own objectives can be met. Therefore, it is crucial to know how to communicate efficiently and strategically.

Aesthetic emotional reactions and their verbal expression in a corpus of Japanese travellers’ online reviews

Abstract Using Conceptual Metaphor Theory, I propose a study of aesthetic emotional expressions in Japanese. With this aim, I have created a medium-sized corpus (c100,000 running words) of travellers’ reviews in Japanese published on TripAdvisor between 2012 and 2022. The corpus consists of 1,100 reviews, grouped into three subsections, corresponding to three of the most visited landmarks in Japan (namely, Mount Fuji, Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine, and the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome). The reviews chosen for this research include at least one reference, either literal or figurative, to the users’ aesthetic evaluation of their visit. My list of aesthetic emotions consists of four large categories: emotions of pleasure (e.g., attraction, fluency), emotions of contemplation (e.g., interest, intrigue), emotions of amazement (e.g., awe, wonder), and emotions of respect (e.g., admiration, adoration). For each aesthetic emotion, I have identified a series of source domains, which I analyse in detail in my discussion. As my data shows, many of our aesthetic expressions are rooted in the psychological and behavioural changes triggered by these emotions and, therefore, should be considered embodied. More importantly, through the analysis of the conceptual mappings involved in these linguistic expressions, it can be affirmed that aesthetic reactions are sensitive to cultural influences and, thus, they are not necessarily universal.

Effects of Radioactive 56MnO2 Particle Inhalation on Mouse Lungs: A Comparison between C57BL and BALB/c.

The effects of residual radiation from atomic bombs have been considered to be minimal because of its low levels of external radioactivity. However, studies involving atomic bomb survivors exposed to only residual radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki have indicated possible adverse health effects. Thus, we investigated the biological effects of radioactive dust of manganese dioxide 56 (56MnO2), a major radioisotope formed in soil by neutron beams from a bomb. Previously, we investigated C57BL mice exposed to 56MnO2 and found pulmonary gene expression changes despite low radiation doses. In this study, we examined the effects in a radiation-sensitive strain of mice, BALB/c, and compared them with those in C57BL mice. The animals were exposed to 56MnO2 particles at two radioactivity levels and examined 3 and 65 days after exposure. The mRNA expression of pulmonary pathophysiology markers, including Aqp1, Aqp5, and Smad7, and radiation-sensitive genes, including Bax, Phlda3, and Faim3, was determined in the lungs. The radiation doses absorbed in the lungs ranged from 110 to 380 mGy; no significant difference was observed between the two strains. No exposure-related pathological changes were observed in the lungs of any group. However, the mRNA expression of Aqp1 was significantly elevated in C57BL mice but not in BALB/c mice 65 days after exposure, whereas no changes were observed in external γ-rays (2 Gy) in either strain. In contrast, Faim3, a radiation-dependently downregulated gene, was reduced by 56MnO2 exposure in BALB/c mice but not in C57BL mice. These data demonstrate that inhalation exposure to 56MnO2 affected the expression of pulmonary genes at doses <380 mGy, which is comparable to 2 Gy of external γ-irradiation, whereas the responses differed between the two mouse strains.

The Lesser Evil: Plutonium-239 or Uranium-235? A Study on F0 Atomic Bomb Survivors

‘All models are wrong, but some models are useful.’ Radioactivity is a life-detrimental exposure that increases individuals’ susceptibility to cancer onset. The plasticity of the aging rate, expressed as d(log μ(x))/dx, has been informally acknowledged, often conflated with mortality rate μ(x) or risk log μ(x). A formal examination of this plasticity is lacking. The mortality schedule of irradiated F0 atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima (U-235) and Nagasaki (Pu-239) at age exposure 40 - 45 (ATE45) can unveil the characteristics of hazard trajectories by isotope type and dosimetry. Based on the advantage derived from background radiation, an alternative population was employed during the comparative study. A dose-dependent relationship between radioactive isotope types and the rate of aging was presented in the frailty framework; _γ-Gompertz-Makeham_. Among survivors within the 0-5mGy range, an apparent pseudo-benefit initial mortality risk, linked to the distance from the epicenter, implies that mortality selection is influenced by both impact severity and natural frailty. Moreover, the standardized mortality ratio indicates a more pronounced impact of Pu-239 on age-specific mortality trajectories compared to U-235. In the 0-5mGy range, Pu-239 shows 11% (M) and 37% (F), while U-235 exhibits 4% (M) and 0.5% (F). Upon intense radiation exposure, variation in the human rate of aging exists within a 10-km radius from the epicenter, and gender sensitivity may be a significant contributor to mortality selection.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Hiroshima +75: building peace in Japan and beyond

The use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been extensively studied in war and peace literature. Research abounds on the ethical debates surrounding the bombing, the legal and political ramifications of the use of nuclear weapons, the socio-cultural underpinnings of the peace movements, and the somatic and psychological consequences of the bombing. However, Hiroshima’s reconstruction has rarely been studied from the scholarly lens of peacebuilding approaches that cover various aspects of post-war reconstruction. The city and prefectural governments of Hiroshima published several reports on Hiroshima’s history of reconstruction over the years, and as of 2014, with an aim to support peacebuilding efforts elsewhere and contribute to achieving a peaceful world. Using policy analysis, new empirical data, updated historical accounts, and interdisciplinary lenses, the contributions in this Special Issue respond to this objective by bridging the past war experience and the present peace aspirations from Hiroshima to bring new insights into post-war reconstruction and peacebuilding research and practice.

Literary Negotiations in Contemporary Zainichi Korean Literature: Zainichi Korean Postcoloniality and its Entanglement with Global History

Abstract: Zainichi Korean literature, which addresses questions concerning the Zainichi Korean minority, can be considered as one among many postcolonial literatures. By examining works of Sagisawa Megumu, Kaneshiro Kazuki, and Kim Masumi as case studies, I position contemporary Zainichi Korean literature within the broader context of postcolonial global history. Sagisawa's novel Saihate no futari (Two persons at the margins, 1999) narrates the relationship between a Japanese woman, whose father is an American GI, and a Zainichi Korean man. After the man succumbs to leukemia, the woman discovers that his mother was a survivor of the atomic bomb. The silencing of his mother's voice can be analyzed using Spivak's concept of the subaltern. Kaneshiro's novel GO (2000) addresses Korea's division as a consequence of imperialism and the Cold War. Furthermore, it draws connections between African Americans in the United States and the Zainichi Korean minority, which can be interpreted as an allusion to Bhabha's concept of mimicry. In Kim Masumi's novel Nason no sora (The sky of Nason, 2001), a Zainichi Korean woman residing in the United States engages with both the Japanese expatriate community and Asian Americans, contending with essentialist concepts of ethnicity. I argue that in the selected novels both the literary negotiations of Zainichi Korean postcoloniality and its entanglement with global history as well as the references to other diasporas, namely, the Asian and African diasporas in the United States, contribute to a subversive reframing of some prevailing narratives concerning the Zainichi Korean minority in Japan.