Lecture by Doctor Hida, who has treated A-bomb victims, April 22, 2012
The world’s first Association of Internal Radiation Exposure has been launched. In any countries, the problem of internal exposure has been entirely withheld from their citizens. For those who profit from the use of radioactivity, it is a primary concern that radioactive injuries may be described in detail. Therefore at all costs, up until today, they have led people to believe that internal exposure is harmless.
I was exposed to radiation when I was an army surgeon in Hiroshima. Since then, for 67 years, I have devoted the latter part of my life to the atomic bomb survivors. Some people’s exposure to radiation is recognisable by their appearance, such as keloids causing great suffering, while those who received internal exposure also suffered. In cases of internal exposure, there are no visible signs. When he felt sick and went to a doctor, he was told “you are not ill ” as no abnormality was seen in the inspection and examination. They got angry and came to me saying “How can they say I am not ill? I am awfully sick and I am feeling as if I can’t live any more”
I have treated only such patients since 1960. The only thing which I could do was to encourage them and have them live longer. The doctors didn’t know how to treat patients who had conditions such as that. Eventually I gave them the guidance to protect their health and told them to live a long life together. I joined HIDANKYO; the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations; the only organization of survivors in Japan. What I have done is to promote the longevity of 200,000 ～ 300,000 A-bomb survivors。
People ask me at lectures all over Japan, “Can I make my child live a long life?”, “Can a girl grew up to marry and have a baby?”, “How can I live a long life to take care of my parents?”. Many experts say you should move to an unpolluted area and take radioactive- free food and water only, which most people cannot do. I will teach them what they can do. I conclude by saying that the only thing we can do is protect our own health, thinking our lives most valueable and striving consciously to live ideal healthy lives.
Besides that, I tell them not to think only of their own and their children’s happiness. If you want to be happy, think about the way by which all mothers and children can become happy. In order to do that, we have to work hard to stop all the nuclear power plants in Japan. The nuclear weapons all over the world should be eliminated. We must absolutely avoid Janan being exploited by a nuclear war. To achieve that, we have to courageously tell America to go home. If we want to get rid of the suffering of A-bomb radioactivity damage, there is no other thing but the withdrawl of America that will prevent it.
In the case of external exposure there are certain conditions of radiation intensity. If there is not enough strength of radioactivity up to piercing skin and entering inside, it cannot harm the human body. However, in the case of internal exposure, the magnitude of the quantity and quality of radioactivity is irrelevant. Once having taken in radiation, even small amounts, he is a radiation victim. Japan has been told a lie by America, from the moment the atomic bomb was dropped. A groundless lie that internal exposure is harmless to the human body, as the radiation amounts taken in are minute. A lot of people have been misled by it and many university professors still think without research that minor internal exposure is safe.
Two people were exposed in the same state in the same place in Hiroshima, one died 3 days later and the other has been alive until today. Speaking of the relationship between radiation and human, it varies depending on the reciever’s physical condition when he was exposed to radiation. Even if two people were exposed to similar radioactive conditions, their injuries could be different from each other. Basically you can live longer by preventing the radiation from creating lesion. Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have lived longer in that way. Live so as not to be defeated by radiation. Do not get over-extended in general life, on diet, rest, sleep, toilet, etc., and live as natural a life as possible. Parents take the initiative and discipline children follow this example. If you wouldn’t like to have such a strict deciplined life, you just would have to die from radiation.
Bura-bura Disease; patients named it. I presume this disease will break out in Fukushima. The radiation exposure was to MOX, a mixture of plutonium and uranium, the same as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have experienced will surely happen to Fukushima people. I presume it will start with a substantial number three years later. But I’m afraid it has already begun at the first year. The symptoms of radiation syndorome are purple spots of skin, mucosal bleeding, high fever, stomatitis and hair loss. Four women in Soma of Fukushima informed me about hair loss. It will increase within a year. I worry about the situation. The reason for my worry is that no doctor in Japan has experienced the symptoms of internal exposure. They don’t have knowledge about radiation injuries. With the power of government, we urgently need to create a system by which doctors examine and cure survirors correctly. Otherwise, doctors will be confused and patients will be in poor condition.
The most important thing you can do from now on is to stop all nuclear power plants in Japan and leave a beautiful Japan for your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Another thing is to encourage the people who have been exposed and suffering and help them to live, brightly facing forward.
(Translated by Sayaka Tasuda, edited by Naoko Harada and Lars Cawley)