Ninoshima

Postscript When I serialized this story in The Industrial Health Journal, I visited Hiroshima several times. I also met Dr. Kinya Murata, in Takasaki City and Dr. Tadashi Kawakami in Tsuruga, who were my superior officers on Ninoshima Island. I found that the two doctors had tried to forget Hiroshima during the years they had lived after the war. Eventually, considerable mismatches in our memories were recognized. It was finally discerned among themselves that the only way to accurately tell the story of Ninoshima was to have the young man who spent his military life as a surgeon army irregular tell it with an incomplete memory.

In parallel, I met Professor Ukon (Vice President, Hiroshima Medical Association), a respected senior of ours in the field of industrial health, and Mr. Sugata (Deputy Director of Science Division of Hiroshima Medical Association), men who had been involved in academic research for many years. They gave me many precious materials and information.

Also Dr. Tadashi Hiraoka in Osu City, a former teacher in the army, and Professor Moritomi ofTohoku University, my superior officer on Ninoshima Island gave me invaluable detailed advice.

The characters in “The Atomic Bomb Victims on Ninoshima” have assumed names. Some are adapted. I admit that my memories are not perfect to complete the medical descriptions with total accuracy. Yet I have done my best to assure the most accurate descriptions, referring to various documents published by The Hiroshima Medical Association.

Shuoshi Mizuhara, haiku poet, said that truth in literature and truth in fact are completely different. I felt I began to understand his assertion in the progress of writing this book.

Ochibasanto Shishu no tsuchi wo Kazarunari.

(Falling leaves, shining, decorate the soil with stench of death.)

In autumn 1960, I visited Hiroshima for the first time after the war.

It was a memorable year. Professor Masao Tsuzuki gave his lecture on atomic-bomb disease in February, for the first time since the war ended, at The Hiroshima Rural Medicine Association.

Until then, the occupation of Japan by the U.S. military had discouraged people from openly arguing on the subject.

Also, it was an era when Japan began to enjoy its high economic growth.

Professor Tsuzuki remarked at the end of his lecture: “It might sound attractive when we hear words of the peaceful use of nuclear power.

“It would be, however, too cruel for the remaining victims of atomic bomb to ask them directly for their cooperation in collecting the information 124