The nagasaki atomic bomb and its influence on motherhood in Japan
The nagasaki atomic bomb and its influence on motherhood in Japan
When Kikuyo Nakamura's adult son discovered unusual bumps on his back, she assumed that it was only a rash. Nevertheless, she urged him to go to the hospital - better carefully than careless. Hiroshi, her second son, was born in 1948, three years after the atomic bombing on Nagasaki. As the survivor of the bomb attack, Nakamura had long feared to pass on health problems to her children.
diagnosis leukemia
in 2003, at the age of 55, Hiroshi went to the hospital. Two days passed without hearing anything from him. Then three. Finally a week. Finally Nakamura made her way to the hospital, where her son told her: "You will carry out further tests." The results showed that he suffered from leukemia in stage 4 - an advanced form of blood cancer that had spread to other parts of the body. According to Nakamura, the doctor informed her that she had given her son cancer - and indicated that the radiation that had affected him had been transferred to him during breastfeeding.
a burden of guilt and stigma
When Hiroshi died six months later, his mother remained the thought that she killed him, so to speak; A thought that tortures her over two decades later. "I was overwhelmed by guilt and suffering ... Even now I still believe what the doctor said that I caused it. This guilt continues to live in me," said Nakamura, who is now 101 years old.
After a nuclear attack, people who were exposed to radioactive radiation are generally advised to stop breastfeeding immediately. However, experts emphasize that there is no concrete evidence that the first generation of the "Hibakusha" - the survivors of the atomic bombs of the Second World War - can pass on carcinogenic material to their children years after exposure.
memories of the survivors
Near the 80th anniversary of the US bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki share older survivors-some, like Nakamura, over 100 years old-their stories of suffering and resistance as long as they can. Many of them were young women, either pregnant or at beyond age than the bombs fell and lived a large part of their lives in the shade of fear and stigmatization.
doctors, neighbors, even friends and family had told them that their radiation exposure could lead to children with diseases or disabilities - provided they could get pregnant at all.
long -term health risks
Even if infertility or a disability of the child had nothing to do with radiation exposure, the Hibakusha women often felt accused and excluded. Women with visible scars from the explosions faced marriage problems. Physical wounds were more difficult to hide and pointed out more clearly on an exposure. In a society in which the value of a woman was closely associated with marriage and motherhood, this stigmatization was particularly harmful.
This meant that many female survivors - many of whom were PTSD (post -traumatic stress disorder) - "hid that they were Hibakusha," said Masahiro Nakashima, professor of radiation studies at the University of Nagasaki.
lifelong scars
In some cases, radiation exposure also had an impact on the second generation of survivors, depending on the time of pregnancy. The embryonic phase- which usually ranges from 5th to the 15th week- is particularly sensitive to the development of brain and organ. Women who were exposed to radiation during this period had a higher risk of giving birth to children with intellectual disabilities, neurological problems and microcephaly, according to the Japanese-US-American Radiation Effects Research Foundation (Rerf).
Further studies showed that Hibakusha women themselves were exposed to long-term health risks. A 2012 RERF study found that radiation exposure increased the risk of cancer for the rest of a life due to an atomic bomb. In women at the age of 70, the rate of solid cancer increased by 58 percent for every gray radiation that absorbed their bodies at the age of 30. A gray is a unit that measures how much radiation energy a body or object absorbs.
Nakamura was 21 years old and was hanging outdoors when the bomb fell on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. It was 5 kilometers from the epicenter - slightly outside of what experts call "total destruction". The young mother saw a bright light, followed by a loud bang and a huge gust of wind that hurled her into the air. When she came up with awareness, her house was devastated - furniture lay scattered everywhere, and glass plitters covered the ground. She called for her own mother, who had helped her take care of her eldest son.
psychological trauma and social pressure
Although Nakamura itself did not seem to have an effect on radiation exposure, psychological trauma remained. She feared that the stigma could also change to her grandchildren. "If people knew that my son died of leukemia, especially before they got married (my grandchildren), others might not want them to marry. I made sure that my children understood it. We kept it in the family and told anyone how he died," said Nakamura.
In 2006 she finally spoke publicly about her son's cancer, three years after his death. "I received calls and even letters from people who had heard of my story. Although she now knows that it is unlikely that she caused her son's disease, the feeling of guilt for her as a mother remains a permanent burden.another experience of the survivors
The special burden on the Hibakusha mother is something that Mitsuko Yoshimura, today 102 years old, was never allowed to experience. Separated from her parents and sister at a young age, she always longed for a family. She moved to Nagasaki to get a good job in the payroll accounting of Mitsubishi-just a few months before the US troops turned off the bomb and transformed the city into hell.
"When I stepped onto the street, I saw people with bleeding heads, people with detached skin," she recalled. Just one kilometer from the explosion's epicenter, their survival was a real miracle. In the following months she remained to help the injured person. But her body also suffered. "My hair failed. Every time I tried to comb her with my hands, strands gradually went out," said Yoshimura. She also had to spit blood regularly several months after the bombing.
Despite all this challenge, she married one year after the end of the war. Her husband was also a survivor of the atomic bomb attack, and her marriage marked a fresh start for her as a couple. But the child they wanted was never born. She had two miscarriages and a dead birth.
valuable teachings for the future
yoshimura now lives alone; Her husband died years ago. Instead, dolls are in their home in Nagasaki, where otherwise would be photos of children and grandchildren - a quiet replacement for what was lost, as she said. In their advanced age, Nakamura and Yoshimura know that they don't have much time. This gives them a stronger drive to clarify younger generations about the consequences of the nuclear war.
"People really have to think carefully. What does it bring or lose? asked Nakamura. "I don't understand. But what I feel deeply is the complete senselessness of the war," she summed up.
Kommentare (0)