Nuke tragedy in the Pacific
(From The Japan Times March 1 issue)

太平洋上の核の悲劇を忘れるな

Along with Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945 — the dates of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings — March 1, 1954, is an important date. Fifty-five years ago, residents of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the 23 crew members of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), a 140-ton tuna fishing boat from Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, were exposed to fallout from the test explosion of a U.S. hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll.

The Daigo Fukuryu Maru tragedy touched off a movement against nuclear weapons among housewives in Tokyo's Suginami Ward — a harbinger of later organized anti-nuclear weapons movements in Japan. The boat now sits in the Tokyo Metropolitan Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall as a monument.

On the early morning of March 1, 1954, the fishing boat was operating about 160 km east of Bikini Atoll when a white substance rained on it for several hours. It was fallout from the explosion of the Bravo bomb, 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

The boat returned to Yaizu on March 14. The crew members, suffering from nausea, headaches, burns, pains in the eyes, bleeding from the gums, etc., were diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome and admitted to two Tokyo hospitals.

On Sept. 23, chief radio operator Mr. Aikichi Kuboyama, 40, died — the first Japanese victim of a hydrogen bomb. He left these words: "I pray that I am the last victim of an atomic or hydrogen bomb." It is said that several hundred more tuna fishing boats and their crews were exposed to the Bravo fallout.

From 1946 to 1958, the United States carried out 67 nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak atolls, and some 840 Marshall islanders are believed to have died of health problems caused by the tests. As of the end of 2003, more than 1,000 islanders were suffering from symptoms believed related to radiation exposure.

U.S. President Barack Obama, during his campaign, said the ultimate goal of U.S. nuclear policy should be to eliminate all nuclear weapons. Japan should work together with the United States toward creating a world free of nuclear weapons.

1954年3月1日は、広島原爆の日、長崎原爆の日と並ぶ重要な日だ。太平洋上ビキニ環礁での水爆実験で発生した放射性降下物によって、マーシャル諸島住民や静岡県焼津漁港からのマグロ漁船「第五福竜丸」の乗員が被曝した。

これきっかけに杉並区の主婦らが核兵器反対運動を始め、日本で組織的反核運動が広まった。

被曝事件当日、ビキニ環礁の東約160キロ地点にいた同船は、広島原爆の1000倍の威力を持つ水爆ブラボーからの白い降下物を数時間浴び、同月14日に母港に帰港、乗組員らは急性放射線症候群と診断された。9月23日、久保山･無線長が「原水爆による犠牲者は私で最後にして欲しい」と言い残して死亡した。

1946年から1958年にビキニ環礁とエニウェトク環礁で米国が実施した原水爆実験67回の影響でマーシャル諸島民840人が死亡、2003年末時点で1000人以上が被害に苦しんでいるといわれる。

オバマ米大統領は選挙戦中に核兵器全廃を訴えたが、日米が協力して実現に尽力すべきだ。