Exposure; Victims of Radiation Speak Out

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1992. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 327, [1] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations. Radiation and its Victims--A Chronological Table. Publisher's ephemera laid in. Foreword by Robert J. Lifton. Introduction by Ogata Yukio. Appendix. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Some pages are 'off white'. A team of journalists from the Hiroshima-based newspaper interview victims exposed to radiation, investigate environmental dangers, and appeal for an end to nuclear testing. The Chugoku Shimbun ("Midland News") is a Japanese local daily newspaper based in Hiroshima. It serves the Ch goku region of Japan with a market share in Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, Okayama and Tottori Prefectures. The newspaper publishes morning and evening editions. The morning paper has a daily circulation of 646,900. And the evening paper has a daily circulation of 40,600. The Daily Chugoku was established on May 5, 1892, in Hiroshima and was founded by its editor, Saburo Yamamoto. In 1908, the newspaper changed its name to The Chugoku Shimbun, which translates to "Middle Country Newspaper" (geographically, Hiroshima is near the center of the Japanese archipelago). The A-Bomb on August 6, 1945, killed 113 newspaper employees, and destroyed the building and equipment. The newspaper restarted publishing on August 9 by asking other newspapers for help. Derived from a Publisher's Weekly article: A year-long study led a team of Japanese journalists to conclude that nuclear testing, refining and power plants continue to contaminate human beings and create more hibakusha (radiation victims). First published as a series of articles in a Hiroshima newspaper in 1989-1990, this impressive, in-depth report details nuclear contamination's appalling toll: the still-lethal effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster; the destruction British, French and Japanese nuclear tests and refineries have caused in the South Pacific; the danger the ongoing development of nuclear power for ``peaceful'' uses poses to the planet and its inhabitants. The authors cite New Mexican and Nambian villagers whose homes were irradiated by uranium mining, and fishermen in India who became ill as a result of their proximity to the nation's ``radiation coast'' (on the Arabian Sea) and to the Tarapur Nuclear Complex, reputedly ``the dirtiest nuclear facility in the world.'' Although national and international scientific research groups show increasing awareness of the need for action, especially concerning nuclear waste, the authors call upon Japan to display even greater initiative in this area.