History of Japan

Location: Japan's neighbors include the Republic of Korea, China, and Russia.

National flag: Known as the Hinomaru, the flag depicts the sun as a red ball against a white background.

National anthem: "Kimigayo"

Population: 127,427,000 (as of March 2010)  

Land area: 377,944 square kilometers 

Unit of currency: yen

 

Language: Japanese (The written Japanese language uses a combination of three writing systems: kanji, hiragana, and katakana.)

Main religions: Shinto, Buddhism, and Christianity

Capital: Tokyo (population 13,043,441 as of July 2010); land area 2,187.58 square kilometers)

Pictures

 Photos taken by us.

Video

To watch the video click on the link below

- http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1691365199775

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How many people died as a result of the atomic bombings?

Deaths were caused by the atomic bombings as well as later deaths due to the radiation exposure. The total number of deaths is not known precisely because the records were destroyed. There is an estimate of the total deaths that took place within two to four months after the bombings took place.

Table Estimated population size and number of acute	(within two to four months) deaths in Hiroshima	and Nagasaki after the atomic bombings.
City	Estimated city population at the time of the bombings	Estimated number of acute deaths
Hiroshima	340,000-350,000 persons	90,000－166,000 persons
Nagasaki	250,000-270,000 persons	60,000－80,000 persons

2. How many cancers in atomic-bomb survivors are attributable to radiation?

• Cancer death to radiation exposure is higher in the exposed areas near the hypocenter. Nearly half of the leukemia deaths and about 10% of cancers are due to radiation exposure.

3. Are radiation-induced cancers still occurring among atomic-bomb survivors?

• Cancers due to radiation are still occurring among the A-bomb survivors. The risk of leukemia, seen especially among children, was highest during the first ten years after exposure to radiation of the bomb, but has decreased over time and has now virtually disappeared. Risk of cancers other than leukemia seems likely to persist throughout the lifetime of the survivors.

4. What health effects other than cancer have been seen among the atomic-bomb survivors? 

• There has been a relationship between radiation and deaths from causes other than cancer. A total of 18,049 non-cancer deaths occurred between 1950 and 1997 among the 49,114 persons that were detected with radiation in their bodies. The risk for non-cancer deaths is considerably smaller than that for cancer deaths, but because non-cancer causes consist of a larger fraction of human deaths, the total number of estimated radiation exposed non-cancer deaths is about 50-100% of the number of estimated radiation-related cancer deaths. Researches have been made in which they analyzed the relationship between radiation exposure and people whom had non-cancer disorder. Statistically there was more risk for those who were detected with uterine myoma, chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, thyroid disease and cardiovascular disease.
  The results showed that the thyroid gland in young people was more sensitive to radiation not only in the development of thyroid cancer, but also in the possibility of the development of non-malignant thyroid disorders.
  Cataracts are another condition related to radiation. Symptoms can appear as early as one or two years following high exposure and many years after exposure to lower doses. Some non cancer diseases may be associated with altered immune functions in survivors. 

1. What percentage of the original atomic-bomb survivor study population is still alive?

As of 2007, about 40% of the RERF study population was still living, and more than 90% of the survivors exposed under the age of 10 were still living. 
As of 2007, the average age of the RERF study participants was 74 years.

2. Are Hiroshima and Nagasaki still radioactive?

No.

3. Why was Hiroshima "targeted," and not Tokyo? 
   Many say that it was one of the targets because no one had heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and no one knew anyone from there. Most world maps from before WWII do not even mention these cities at all. 

4. How far did the damage of the atomic bomb reach?
    The area within a radius 2 km from the hypocenter was reduced to ashes. It was reported that even window panes at the point of 27 km were broken. The damage expanded to a wider area because of black rain which contained radioactivity from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

1940´s

The atomic bomb explosion on Hiroshima was on 1945.

Fashion in the 1940´s: Women had their eyebrows very thin and defined. They painted with lipstick their upper lip very accentuated and it was called ¨Cupids bow”.
Children in that time took the same subjects as the ones now. Reading, spelling, math and geography are some of them. However, the classrooms were different. The desks were all separated so the students wouldn´t talk, and the chairs were bonded to the floor in straight lines. Teachers were very strict. Everything was more orderly, when recess time came, everyone would march out their classrooms. Children would go to school riding their bicycle or walking, and mostly boys and girls played on separate playgrounds. They learned about what was going on like the war, and tried to help as much as they could by recycling old rubber tires and metals to make new weapons.   Children didn´t have money to spend so they learned how to take care of their books and other belongings.
In that time, Hollywood started to produce many movies that became war-time favorites. Major movie studio profits grew to record levels. There were technological improvements in the sound recordings, the lighting, and special effects. Hollywood was dominating the entertainment industry, but the television was developing very fast.
The 1940´s is the decade known as ¨The Decade of War¨. It was a time when mostly everything someone heard had something to do with killing and blood. Yet, there were many interesting sports and games. When the war was over, there were many marriages.

Similar Disasters and Interesting Facts

Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima the same year but three days later. On August 9, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. “Bockstar” was the name of the airplane that carried the bomb named “Fat Man”. The blast of this bomb was bigger than Hiroshimas´ but its impact was reduced by the citys´ natural topography. The bomb caused a big damage. An area of about 2.3 miles by 1.9 miles was destroyed. The medical facilities of Nagasaki were not totally destroyed, yet many people were injured or dead. Thirty five thousand people were killed, sixty thousand people were injured, and five thousand people were lost. Seventy percent of the city´s industrial zone was destroyed.

Interesting facts.

The fireball that was the result from the explosion of the bomb was fifty percent hotter than the surface of the sun.

After the destruction that caused the atomic bomb, Hiroshima received donations of streetcars from everywhere in Japan. Hiroshima was able to rebuild its streetcar system which today is the most extensive system in the country.

This city used to be a center of military activity, but after the bomb it became a center of peace.

It is interesting to know that today, one quarter of Hiroshima´s electricity is from nuclear power.

The Aftermath to the Disaster

Hiroshima was in ruins and thousands of people were dead. Sixty percent of the deaths were caused by the burns of the radiation flash and by the fires that covered the entire city. There were many effects caused by the exposure to the bombs radiation. People had nausea, they suffered from bleeding and some lost their hair. Other effects were leukemia, cataracts, and malignant tumors. Ninety percent of the medical personnel of Hiroshima were killed, and there were no medical supplies.

Days after the bombing the Japanese formed the “Atomic Bomb Countermeasure Committee," which was made up of members of the war and Navy, and included Technical Board representatives. On August 7, a first meeting if the committee was held. Army and navy personnel were sent to investigate Hiroshima. Temporal first aid stations were established all around the city.

After a month that the atomic bomb was dropped, a typhoon hit Hiroshima. The city was in a state of lethargy because there were no companies or factories to employ them, and they had no food to eat.

Hiroshima pleaded the abolition of nuclear weapons and lasting peace. Since the end of the war, the city has continually developed as a “city of peace”.

World War II ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb with a code name of “Little Boy” in Hiroshima.