For some survivors the next chapter was months or years of treatment for burns, wounds, and infections. For children such as Sachiko Yasui, the postwar years also meant living with losses whose effects extended through the family.
Later radiation effects reached far beyond August 1945. Follow-up studies of the two cities documented increased rates of leukemia and other cancers in exposed populations. The timing differed by disease. An early rise in leukemia was followed by longer-lasting excess risk for several solid cancers.
Living with survivor status brought a social burden as well. Fear and misinformation could affect job and marriage prospects. Securing formal medical and financial support took years, and the legal history helps explain why a person’s experience of exposure and their access to assistance could differ.
- 1957
Medical care
Japan enacted a law providing medical care for qualifying atomic bomb survivors. Which kinds of exposure qualified became a question with practical consequences for access to care.
- 1968
Additional support
A special measures law expanded support. The 1957 and 1968 laws formed the basis for the later national survivors’ support system.
- 1994–1995
A consolidated support law
The Atomic Bomb Survivors’ Support Law was promulgated in 1994 and took effect in 1995, bringing the earlier measures together.
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation · Leukemia risks
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation · Solid cancer risks
- National Museum of Nuclear Science & History · Survivors and discrimination
- Prefectural University of Hiroshima repository · History of survivors’ support (PDF)
Treatment, observation and family life
The museum’s rescue and relief collection brings attention to the people treating injuries in the days after the bombing. Months and years of recovery could follow the immediate effort to keep someone alive. Taniguchi’s recorded testimony gives a personal account of the difference between surviving the day and returning to everyday life.
The first round of examinations in the Adult Health Study ran from 1958 to 1960 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Repeated examinations let investigators study changes across decades. Survivors also worried about their children. Research on people exposed before birth and studies of children conceived after a parent’s exposure concern different groups, so it matters which population a paper describes.
When people died, and what the records can tell us
Nagasaki’s city record cites an estimate of 73,884 deaths by the end of 1945. Many families experienced deaths after the day itself as burns, injuries and radiation illness took their course.
At high doses, radiation damaged the digestive system and bone marrow. Some people who survived the flash died days or weeks later. Fever, bleeding and infections could accompany failing blood-cell production. The medical chronology matters when reading a family account that describes someone returning home or appearing to recover before becoming ill.
Years later, leukemia was among the first detectable excesses. Studies identified increased risk for several solid cancers over much longer follow-up. Acute deaths and later deaths are documented using different methods. A city estimate, an individual death certificate, a memorial register and a research estimate each answers a different question.
- 1945
The emergency continued through the year
Injuries and acute radiation effects claimed lives after the first day. Families also faced homelessness, hunger and the loss of relatives and neighbors.
- Late 1940s onward
Doctors began seeing excess leukemia
Leukemia often emerged earlier than solid cancers. The two-city research followed survivors with different ages and estimated doses.
- 1950–2003
Long-term mortality follow-up
One research analysis estimated 527 additional solid-cancer deaths attributable to radiation in its defined two-city study population. The researchers used dose and follow-up data to estimate that excess.
- Later decades
Health, recognition and remembrance
Survivors continued seeking care, keeping records and sharing testimony. A memorial register preserves names according to its own criteria and cannot establish whether radiation caused each named person’s death.
How to read the 527 estimate
This is a modeled estimate drawn from both cities together over a specified period. It covers the cohort and cause of death studied. A comprehensive city-by-city tally of later deaths attributable to the bombing cannot be derived from this figure.
- RERF · Life Span Study mortality reports
- RERF · Explanation of late-effect mortality estimates (PDF)
- RERF · Early death estimates and radiation research FAQ
Follow a life across time
Read Sachiko Yasui’s family memoir beside Sumiteru Taniguchi’s testimony. Yasui describes how losses accumulated across her family. Taniguchi describes a survival that required prolonged treatment, with consequences that remained long after the fighting ended.