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Damage surveys in the post-war turmoil
Even after the war ended on August 15, military organizations and university researchers in Hiroshima at the request of the military continued their investigations.
Toward mid-August, Hiroshima, except for Ujina and a few distant sections, remained almost totally in ruins. Electricity and water had yet to be restored. Not only was it difficult to obtain the equipment required for the investigation, even food and shelter for the researchers were hard to find. In addition, enormous changes taking place in the social system filled nearly all Japanese with a profound and unprecedented dread.
To conduct scientific investigations under such circumstances was extremely difficult both physically and emotionally.
However, the teams worked quietly and devotedly toward their goals. Thanks to their tremendous efforts, much extremely valuable material and data were preserved.
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Survey activities by the War Department Hiroshima Damage Survey Team
Major Kiyoshi Yamashina was an army doctor with the War Department Hiroshima Damage Survey Team (hereinafter, "First Survey Team") composed primarily of military doctors from the Army Medical School. They came to Hiroshima with the Imperial Headquarters Survey Team. Dr. Yamashina performed 12 autopsies between August 10 and 14 at the Ninoshima Quarantine Station, where many victims were taken.
The autopsies performed on the 10th were the first autopsies of A-bomb victims, and this series of autopsies provided valuable information regarding the symptoms of acute radiation poisoning. Most of the specimens were taken back to the US, some being returned in 1973 by the AFIP (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology).
The Army Medical School, responding to a request from the survey team on August 9 for a radiation specialist, sent Army Medical School radiology professor Keisuke Misonou and researchers from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Hidehiko Tamaki, Koichi Muraji, Motoharu Kimura) to investigate the radiation (hereinafter, "Second Survey Team").
The Second Survey Team arrived in Hiroshima on the 14th. By the 18th, they were at the Ninoshima Quarantine Station measuring the radiation in the bones of corpses. They also measured radiation at the Western Drill Ground, the Red Cross Hospital, and other locations around the city to investigate the distribution of residual radiation.
The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research personnel on the Second Survey Team reported their findings in a paper entitled, Interim Report on the Atomic Bombing by the Survey Team of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.
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Kiyoshi Yamashina, Autopsy Records, pathology specimens
Collection of Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine
Second War Department Hiroshima Damage Survey Team measuring radiation September 1945
Taken by Japan Film Corporation
This film is of a re-enactment showing Motoharu Kimura of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research measuring radiation near the hypocenter, which he had actually done on August 17.
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Survey activities of the War Department Hiroshima Damage Second Survey Team
On August 22, Army Medical School President Kenji Ibuka, after discussions with Professor Masao Tsuzuki at the Tokyo Imperial University Medical School, sent a joint survey team (War Department Hiroshima Damage Second Survey Team) from the Army Medical School/Institute of Physical and Chemical Research and Tokyo Imperial University. Sent from the army were Major Keisuke Misonou and Major Kiyoshi Yamashina. Tokyo University sent Professor Tsuzuki, Assistant Ishibashi (surgery), and Assistant Professor Hitoshi Miyake (pathology). The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research sent Asao Sugimoto and Fumio Yamazaki.
This joint team entered Hiroshima on August 29.
Working with the team of Army Major Motohashi, which had gone in previously, they conducted investigations and held a joint meeting on September 1 in the Ujina Branch of the Hiroshima First Army Hospital. Between September 1 and 10, they submitted seven reports.
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Reports 1 to 7 of the War Department Hiroshima Damage Survey Team
September 1 to 10, 1945
Collection of Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine
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Survey activities of the Kyoto Imperial University Survey Team
After receiving a request from the Kyoto Division Headquarters, Kyoto Imperial University Bunsaku Arakatsu, Koichi Kimura, and Sakae Shimizu from the Physics Department and Shigeteru Sugiyama, Mitsuaki Shimamoto, and Masashi Kimura from the Medical School. Including the technicians sent by the army, it was a 10-man team.
This team entered Hiroshima in the afternoon of August 10. They attended the army-navy joint meeting sponsored by Imperial Headquarters and started investigations in the fields of physics and medicine.
Professor Arakatsu and the other physics researchers gathered specimens from around the city, then left Hiroshima on the 11th to take the samples back and study them in the labs. They confirmed the presence of radiation.
For a short time, all survey teams had left Hiroshima, but on August 27, the Chugoku Military District Headquarters requested Professor Sugiyama to continue his investigations. After consulting with Professor Takehiko Kikuchi (hematology) and Professor Seigo Funaoka (anatomy), he accepted the request.
On September 2, the advance unit of Kyoto University A-bomb Disaster Survey Team entered Hiroshima. On September 4, Team itself arrived and began examining survivors at the Ono Army Hospital just outside the city.
On September 17, the Makurazaki Typhoon attacked the Hiroshima area. The damage from this typhoon was magnified by the excessive logging that had gone on during the war. Numerous floods and huge landslides killed over 2,600 people in Hiroshima Prefecture. After suffering the cruel damage of the atomic bombing, just as they were struggling to get up, they were knocked down again by nature. Late on the 17th, a landslide caused by the typhoon hit the Ono Army Hospital housing the survey team from Kyoto Imperial University, killing many members.
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Ushita Clinical Team, Kyoto Imperial University A-bomb Disaster Survey Team
Courtesy of Susumu Nakano
Ono Army Hospital destroyed by a landslide
Courtesy of Kura Mashita
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Survey activities by Osaka and Kyushu Imperial Universities
Kyushu Imperial University
Professor Kenichi Shinohara (physics) received a request from the Western Japan Army Command and entered Hiroshima with military personnel on August 9.
They studied mainly military facilities in the city and worked with the Imperial Headquarters Survey Team. However, they left Hiroshima on the 11th and subsequently focused exclusively on the situation in Nagasaki.
Osaka Imperial University
Receiving a request from the Osaka Naval Base, Professor Tsunesaburo Asada (physics) entered Hiroshima with military personnel on the 10th after stopping at the Navy Hospital in Kure. Using a gold leaf electroscope, they found radiation in the sand covering the Western Drill Ground. On the 11th, they obtained more accurate readings with a Geiger counter. Based on these findings, the navy team reported that the weapon had been an atomic bomb. They left Hiroshima and returned to Osaka.
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Results of the Search for Radioactive Substances in the Soil in Damaged Areas of Hiroshima (Vol. I)
August 11, 1945 Collection of Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine
Professor Tsunesaburo Asada of Osaka Imperial University measured radiation in many locations around the city.
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Survey activities by Hiroshima University and Research Institutions
The Hiroshima University of Literature and Science, Hiroshima Higher Normal School and other schools in Hiroshima were largely destroyed and did little or no research immediately after the bombing.
Despite the conditions, Professor Takeo Fujiwara (physics) of the Hiroshima University of Literature and Science and his team formed a team to measure radiation. Borrowing a Lauritsen electroscope from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research from September 13 to 24, they measured residual radiation near the hypocenter.
Professor Eiji Hirahara (physics) of Hiroshima City Technical College built his own gold leaf electroscope. From August 21 to September 7, he measured the radiation in various locations around the city and created a radiation distribution map.
Assistant Professor Chuta Tamagawa of Okayama University Medical School on appointment to Hiroshima Prefectural Medical School heard about the enormous destructive power of the atomic bomb and headed for Hiroshima on August 8. Explaining to the Hiroshima City hygiene manager the need for autopsies, he received permission and performed 19 autopsies at Hiroshima Communications Hospital.
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Report on the Hiroshima bombing presented at Hiroshima University of Literature and Science
August 1945
Collection of Kure City Planning Department Maritime Museum Promotion Office
A report bearing the names of Professor Miura and his team from Hiroshima University of Literature and Sciences.
Chuta Tamagawa, who performed autopsies at Hiroshima Communications Hospital October 11, 1945
Photo by Shunkichi Kikuchi
Courtesy of Tokuko Kikuchi
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Survey activities by other organizations
Survey by the Institute for Infections Disease of Tokyo Imperial University
In response to a request from the Hiroshima Prefecture Public Health Section, on August 29, Nobuo Kusano and four others entered Hiroshima and began investigations. It was thought that the diarrhea, bloody stools and other symptoms of acute radiation poisoning were due to dysentary or some other infectious disease.
Survey by the Hiroshima District Meteorological Observatory
Under orders from Director Fujiwara at the Central Meteorological Observatory, the Hiroshima District Meteorological Observatory (now, Hiroshima Local Meteorological Observatory) launched its own survey of the A-bomb disaster. Through the extraordinary efforts of Isao Kita and his team, a detailed interview survey was accomplished and valuable records of the black rain were compiled.
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Hiroshima District Meteorological Observatory, Hiroshima A-bomb Disaster Investigative Report
November 1947
Collection of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
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The death of Midori Naka of the Sakura Troupe-A-bomb Disease
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Midori Naka was an actress with the Sakura Troupe (director - Sadao Maruyama), a traveling theater troupe created about the time of the atomic bombing to raise morale at military facilities. The Sakura Troupe lived in a dormitory/office complex in Horikawa-cho (750 m from the hypocenter). Midori was there when the bomb exploded. She was trapped under the fallen building, but suffered neither burns nor serious injury. She managed to dig herself out and run to Kyobashigawa River to escape the fire. There she got into the water and was later rescued by the Akatsuki Corps and taken to a temporary relief station in Ujina. She crawled out of her dormitory wearing only underwear, and by the time she arrived at the bank of Kyobashigawa River, she was feeling intense pain in her chest. She was vomiting violently, and there was blood in the vomit. Later, blood was found in her stools, and her urine was black, a classic symptom of radiation poisoning.
Her physical problems failed to subside. Filled with anxiety, she left the relief station without permission on the 8th wrapped only in a sheet. She took a train from Hiroshima Station and arrived at her family home in Tokyo late the night of the 9th.
Somehow she managed to make it that far, but she was extremely ill and lacked any appetite. She was admitted to the Tsuzuki Surgical Ward of Tokyo Imperial University Hospital on the 16th.
The initial evaluation was "abrasions over the entire body," but her white blood cell count fell rapidly. She had a high fever, lost her hair, and her wounds continued to ooze pus. Her condition continued to worsen.
She received the best treatment possible at that time, but died on August 24. The cause of death stated on her chart was, for the first time in history, "A-bomb disease."
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Midori Naka
Midori Naka specimens
Collection of Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine
The material returned from the US to Japan in 1972 included these specimens from Midori Naka, who was autopsied at Tokyo Imperial University. Much of the material about the atomic bomb had been confiscated by the US.
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