On Nagasaki Day, know impact of nuclear bombing on survivors and their offspring

It was towards the end of World War II, that US President Harry Truman decided that the fight with Japan must come to an end. Already the Asian nation had lost the battle but still, it was not ready to surrender and hence after considering all the pros and cons, the US president finally ordered its army to drop bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 followed by the second one on Nagasaki on August 9. That is why August 9 is remembered as Nagasaki Day.

Truth about side-effects of bombing

It was expected that thousands of people will be killed in the nuclear bomb attack but no one expected the radiation to cause a long-term impact on health which could last for decades together. The first bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima was a uranium-based bomb called Little Boy which killed over 1 lakh people in the first few days.

No, especially not Nagasaki coz the same exact day Russia invaded Manchuria (which Truman knew would happen coz that was his deal with Stalin - Stalin can have Berlin but he must invade Japan). Nagasaki "just by coincidence" was home to Japan's largest Christian community. pic.twitter.com/caHNHGM2ZS

— Hokago TND Time ✝️ (@htt_tnd) August 6, 2023

The second weapon was the plutonium-based bomb named Fat Man that was dropped on Nagasaki and within a few days killed around 80,000 people. Most of the immediate deaths were due to the blast and explosion as well as due to acute radiation poisoning spread through the firestorm that followed the bombing.

It took a few years for Japan to stabilise after the massive setback and in 1947 the Japanese government started collating information regarding the long-term impact of the nuclear bombing.

RERF, an organisation funded by both the Japanese and American governments was formed that followed the life of over 1 lakh survivors, 77,000 offspring of the survivors, and around 20,000 people who were fortunately not exposed to the radiation.

It is a common belief that those exposed to the bombing had high rates of suffering from cancer and a short lifespan. But that is not true. Although those who were exposed to radiation had a higher rate of getting cancer than those in the other cities with no such exposure, not all the survivors developed cancer.

And even in those who were exposed to radiation, the lifespan on average was reduced to only 1.3 years. Until now, no side effects, abnormalities, or mutations have been found in the children of survivors.