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by Minami Yamashita and Michio Shimotaka, Staff Writers

On April 1, 1975, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), an organization that had been established by the United States two years after the atomic bombings, was reorganized into the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF). Under a framework of U.S.-Japan equal partnership, in which operating costs were borne equally by the two governments, RERF took over operations of the research facilities, located on Hijiyama Hill (in Hiroshima City’s present-day Minami Ward).

Taking over from ABCC

On March 28, 1975, ABCC held a ceremony marking its closing. In his address at the event, then-Chair Lee Roy Allen stated that all the research programs would be continued by RERF. Mr. Allen added that to eliminate unknown fears regarding effects from the atomic bombings, the newly formed organization needed to reinitiate its work with a sense of pride. The new RERF chair was Hisao Yamashita, a Keio University professor who specialized in medical irradiation, while Mr. Allen assumed the post of vice-chair.

ABCC had established its laboratories in Hiroshima City in 1947 and in Nagasaki in 1948, during the occupation of Japan. The organization had begun what was known as the Life Span Study in 1950, research that would track the causes of death in approximately 120,000 A-bomb survivors. The sixth Life Span Study report, published in 1972, noted that the increase in mortality rate for leukemia was markedly high and that the mortality rates for other cancers were also high for groups exposed to high doses of radiation. RERF carried on such studies, investigating radiation effects in terms of specific cancers.

However, among A-bomb survivors the criticism persisted that the organization only “conducted research without providing treatment.” With the organization originating from U.S. military investigations focused on the bombs’ military effectiveness, added to the United States’ continued efforts to increase its nuclear arsenal, vocal opposition arose from many who said the A-bomb survivors were “being used as guinea pigs in preparation for nuclear war.”

In 1948, Japan’s National Institute of Health, under the jurisdiction of the then Ministry of Health and Welfare, joined the studies being conducted at ABCC. The United States had taken the lead in management of the organization and assumed most of the budget. However, the 1971 Nixon Shock, which led to the end of dollar convertibility to gold, as well as other events, exacerbated the financial situation in the United States. From 1973 onward, the Japan and U.S. governments had been engaged in formal negotiations over the future of ABCC.

The Japanese side argued that the organization should at least be managed equally and that research should be conducted based on the understanding and cooperation of the general public. For its part, the United States demanded that Japan bear a greater share of the financial burden. The newly established RERF positioned its research as being for “peaceful purposes” and “not only contribute to the maintenance of health and welfare of A-bomb survivors but also to improvement of the health of all humanity,” initiating certain committees to receive feedback from the local communities.

Chromosomal analysis also conducted

The programs that RERF took over included the study of chromosomal aberrations in the children of A-bomb survivors. During the ABCC era, around 77,000 newborns in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been examined for the presence of abnormalities.

In the 1970s, the media reported on cases in which second-generation A-bomb survivors had developed diseases recognized as being due to effects from A-bomb radiation. Misao Nagoya, an A-bomb survivor who died in 1986 at the age of 56, had lost her son, who was born after the war, to leukemia when he was just seven years old and published a personal account of her experience.

That was a time when second-generation A-bomb survivors were joining the workforce and growing more involved in labor unions. Kazuyoshi Yukawa, 78, a resident of Hiroshima’s Aki Ward, became a representative of a liaison council of second-generation A-bomb survivors, established in 1973, within the All NTT Workers Union of Japan. “My parents’ generation was busy seeking support for themselves, but they also feared that would lead to discrimination against their children. Under such circumstances, the times called for the affected individuals themselves to speak out,” said Mr. Yukawa.

Labor unions and other organizations initiated their own health studies of second-generation A-bomb survivors. The governments of Hiroshima Prefecture and Hiroshima City began providing medical examinations in 1973, with the national government following suit in 1979.

RERF continues even now to study cancer incidence in the second-generation A-bomb survivors, among other research. On its website, it explains that no hereditary effects from radiation have been found to this point in time, adding that because the study cohort of second-generation survivors is still relatively young, several more decades of research are thought to be necessary before any conclusions can be reached.

(Originally published on April 25, 2025)