Stephen Rees's blog

Dr. Suntaro Hida From Hiroshima to Fukushima by Marc Petitjean translated by Ariana Hunter published by Other Press New York

Hardback 170 pages no index – also available as an ebook

On August 6, 1945 the US Airforce dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Dr Hida was seven kilometers away but he headed straight towards the huge pillar of fire. His description of the victims is hard to read – but then the next section of the text covers March 12, 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami devastated north east Japan and reactor Number 1 at the Fukushima nuclear plant blew up. “You’ll see” he said, “it’ll be the same as Hiroshima and Chernobyl, we’ll never know the true extent of the damage.”

Lying by the authorities was standard procedure. People who had been coming to Hiroshima in the weeks after the bombing were becoming ill – they were drinking the water, breathing the air and eating the vegetables that were grown there. No-one then knew about internal radiation. And after Fukushima the responsible parties are still behaving as if it doesn’t pose any danger. You might also bear in mind that the fallout from the plant is still travelling across the Pacific and significant amounts are reaching our shores. In September 2012 Japan was orchestrating its propaganda – “The Fukushima accident is now over and there are no further dangerous effects in the region.”

Internal radiation is invisible and, for most of the history covered by this book, not well understood. And that was because of the policies that were designed to find new ways to use nuclear energy – not just in lots of bombs – though they were there too. We are still fighting the people who insist that there is no danger in peaceful use of nuclear energy. It is regarded as being a go to solution for the need for replacing fossil fuels even though renewable energy is not just much safer but also very much cheaper!

Given that this is a relatively short book I think it is probably not necessary for me to write a great deal about it. Indeed much of what is written above is taken from the book itself. I think it is also probable that the sort of people who would want to argue with the conclusions of the doctor, and the author, are probably unlikely to be open minded about the lessons that many clearly have not learned or chosen to ignore. But it is sobering, hard won experience that is now very convincing. There is not a good case for more – or indeed any – nuclear power. And a compelling necessity for understanding why cancer is one of the hardest things we still have to get better at fighting.