| 3.5 |
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty enters into force |
| 5.11 |
First Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bombing exhibition in New York |
| 6 |
Restoration campaign for Matsuyama district at Nagasaki Ground Zero
starts |
| 7.12 |
Nagasaki University School of Medicine issues Atomic Bomb Rescue
and Relief Report |
| 8.6 |
Names of American prisoners killed in the atomic bombing included
for first time on victims' list / news reported widely in US |
|
| 4.16 |
Emperor and empress offer prayers at Cenotaph for first time |
| 8.6 |
Prime Minister Eisaku Sato becomes first prime minister to attend
Peace Memorial Ceremony |
| 10.29 |
Excavation of remains of atomic bomb victims starts on Ninoshima
island |
| 11.24 |
The House of Representative resolves to observe the three non-nuclear
principles |
|
| 5.15 |
Okinawa reverts to Japan and becomes Okinawa Prefecture |
| 5.26 |
US and USSR start Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT Ⅰ) |
| 6.27 |
Hiroshima Prefectural A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization resolves
to start nationwide search for witnesses |
| 8.6 |
Peace Declaration at Peace Memorial Ceremony uses the term, Heart
of Hiroshima |
|
| 5.9 |
US returns photographic images of the immediate aftermath of the
atomic bombings |
| 7.20 |
Sit in demonstration against French nuclear tests |
| 8.6 |
Strong criticism in Peace Declaration at Peace Memorial Ceremony
of countries possessing nuclear weapons |
|
| 1.1 |
Nagasaki survey center for restoration work established |
| 5.18 |
India conducts first nuclear test in the Pokhran Desert |
| 8.1 |
Exhibition of citizens' pictures of atomic bombing at Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum |
| 8.6 |
Peace Declaration at Peace Memorial Ceremony calls on the UN to
organize an international conference for the complete abolition of
nuclear weapons |
| 10.1 |
Ministry of Health and Welfare unifies system of atomic bomb victim
health cards (Special and Regular) |
|
|
Nuclear Age Enters a New Phase
of Proliferation
Japan's long-held wish for the reversion
of Okinawa was realized on May 15, 1972. The preceding year, the
Emperor and Empress paid their respects at the cenotaph for A-Bomb
victims for the first time and Eisaku Sato became Japan's first
prime minister ever to attend Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony
on August 6. Nuclear proliferation reared up again in the 1970's
with India conducting its first nuclear test in 1974, a decade after
China's test of 1964. The world was shocked by a radiation leak
from the U.S. nuclear power plant on Three Miles Island in 1979.
Nuclear issues had become a topic for all.
Ever since the 1960's, television, newspapers
and other mass media had displayed keen interest in describing the
after effects of the atomic bomb radiation, in order to present
the full picture of the tragedy. The period between 1965 and 1974
was a time of digging up and recording the truths of the bomb.
|
|
Indiscriminateness
of the A-Bomb
An atomic bomb is a weapon of mass destruction.
It kills everyone in the area, friend or foe. Mass extermination of
all, civilians and even infants alike, is inexcusable even in war.
The atomic bomb is manifestly a weapon of this kind. Many people of
overseas origin were also living in the city when the atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima. According to the year-end survey conducted
in 1944 by the National Police Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs,
80,863 people of Korean origin were registered residents of Hiroshima
Prefecture. About 30,000 are believed to have been in the city of
Hiroshima itself. People of other nationalities who fell victim to
the bomb included Chinese, Mongolians, Southeast Asian students, European
missionaries and White Russian refugees.
*A Victim, Yusof - The Testimony
of Brunei's Prime Minister (1971)
A survey by Professor Akira Ubuki of Hiroshima
Jogakuin University revealed that ten US soldiers also died in the
atomic bombing. They included six POW's from the US bomber, Lonesome
Lady, that was shot down in the outskirts of Hiroshima on July 28,
1945.
* NHK Special
Bomber, Lonesome Lady: An Untold Story of the
A-Bombing of Hiroshima (1978)
The US commander-in-chief had been warned
before the bomb was dropped that US POW's might be killed in the blast.
He concluded that this could not be helped.
The Japanese government presented the Allied
Forces with a list of the POW's who had died as a result of the atomic
bombing (including dates of death) in 1951, but the US government
is believed to have kept this list secret from the bereaved families.
In 1970, the name of Corporal John Long, a Lonesome Lady gunner, was
inscribed on the list of A-bomb victims at the Cenotaph. |
|
