Documenting Hiroshima 80 years after A-bombing: On March 1, 1954, ‘ashes of death’ fall on fishing boats, islanders
Mar. 1, 2025
by Michio Shimotaka, Staff Writer
On the morning of March 1, 1954, the United States conducted a hydrogen bomb test known as “Bravo” on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the central Pacific Ocean. The nuclear testing program on the Marshall Islands had begun in 1946, and Bravo was the 12th such test. With an explosive power equivalent to around 1,000 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the bomb used in the test measured among the most powerful to that time.
Matashichi Oishi, who died in 2021 at the age of 87, was at sea area around 160 kilometers east of Bikini Atoll. Later, Mr. Oishi would describe that moment in his book titled Bikini Jiken no Shinjitsu (in English, “The Day the Sun Rose in the West: Bikini, the Lucky Dragon, and I”), published in 2003, writing that “all of a sudden, a yellow light came flooding into the boat’s cabin.” As a refrigeration engineer, Mr. Oishi was serving aboard the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), a tuna fishing boat that had left port in Shizuoka Prefecture with a crew of 23 on board.
Several hours later, a large amount of radioactive fallout rained down from the sky. In the same publication, Mr. Oishi wrote, “I didn’t feel any sense of danger at all. The ash was neither hot nor had any odor. Even when I licked it, it was just gritty like sand and had no flavor.” The boat’s crew members had been exposed to radiation without having any knowledge that their exposure was from the so-called ‘ashes of death.’ At night on that same day, Mr. Oishi suffered from dizziness and nausea. Around one week later, he began exhibiting symptoms of hair loss. The crews of the many other ships in the area at the time are thought to have also been exposed to the radiation.
Before the series of nuclear tests began in 1946, local Bikini Atoll islanders had been forcibly moved elsewhere by the U.S. military. However, 86 people still lived on Rongelap Atoll, located around 170 kilometers to the east of Bikini.
Mina Titus, 71, explained how her “entire life was taken from me.” She was exposed to the ashes of death when she was a six-month-old infant, and the scars from burns she said she suffered at that time remain on her leg. She later lost her father, who was also exposed to radioactive fallout generated by the test, from thyroid cancer. She herself had her thyroid completely removed, and with her siblings also suffering from health problems, she wonders about a possible connection with their exposure to radiation.
In Japan, around half a month after the Bravo test, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru crew’s exposure to radiation from the test and disposal of the tuna they had caught at the time were widely reported in the media. Hiroshima citizens, who had experienced the horrors of the atomic bombing firsthand, took the first steps in calling for a “ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs” in cooperation with each other that transcended party affiliations.
(Originally published on March 1, 2025)
On the morning of March 1, 1954, the United States conducted a hydrogen bomb test known as “Bravo” on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the central Pacific Ocean. The nuclear testing program on the Marshall Islands had begun in 1946, and Bravo was the 12th such test. With an explosive power equivalent to around 1,000 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the bomb used in the test measured among the most powerful to that time.
Matashichi Oishi, who died in 2021 at the age of 87, was at sea area around 160 kilometers east of Bikini Atoll. Later, Mr. Oishi would describe that moment in his book titled Bikini Jiken no Shinjitsu (in English, “The Day the Sun Rose in the West: Bikini, the Lucky Dragon, and I”), published in 2003, writing that “all of a sudden, a yellow light came flooding into the boat’s cabin.” As a refrigeration engineer, Mr. Oishi was serving aboard the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), a tuna fishing boat that had left port in Shizuoka Prefecture with a crew of 23 on board.
Several hours later, a large amount of radioactive fallout rained down from the sky. In the same publication, Mr. Oishi wrote, “I didn’t feel any sense of danger at all. The ash was neither hot nor had any odor. Even when I licked it, it was just gritty like sand and had no flavor.” The boat’s crew members had been exposed to radiation without having any knowledge that their exposure was from the so-called ‘ashes of death.’ At night on that same day, Mr. Oishi suffered from dizziness and nausea. Around one week later, he began exhibiting symptoms of hair loss. The crews of the many other ships in the area at the time are thought to have also been exposed to the radiation.
Before the series of nuclear tests began in 1946, local Bikini Atoll islanders had been forcibly moved elsewhere by the U.S. military. However, 86 people still lived on Rongelap Atoll, located around 170 kilometers to the east of Bikini.
Mina Titus, 71, explained how her “entire life was taken from me.” She was exposed to the ashes of death when she was a six-month-old infant, and the scars from burns she said she suffered at that time remain on her leg. She later lost her father, who was also exposed to radioactive fallout generated by the test, from thyroid cancer. She herself had her thyroid completely removed, and with her siblings also suffering from health problems, she wonders about a possible connection with their exposure to radiation.
In Japan, around half a month after the Bravo test, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru crew’s exposure to radiation from the test and disposal of the tuna they had caught at the time were widely reported in the media. Hiroshima citizens, who had experienced the horrors of the atomic bombing firsthand, took the first steps in calling for a “ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs” in cooperation with each other that transcended party affiliations.
(Originally published on March 1, 2025)
