burchett in hiroshima

8/13/2019 Burchett in Hiroshima

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BURCHETT IN HIROSHIMA

Wilfred Graham Burchett, an Australian journalist, was the first Allied reporter toenter Hiroshima and was the only person to get an uncensored story out of Japan. After a

400mile train ride from !o"yo, he arri#ed on the night of $ept. %, &'4(. )n the morning

he was escorted *y police car to the +ommunications Hospital where he pounded outcopy on his Ba*y Hermes while sitting on a pile of ru**le. )t was pu*lished in the

London Daily Expresson $ept. (th under this ominous headline.

30thDay in Hiroshima: Those who escae! "e#in to !ie$ %ictims o&

THE ATOMIC '(A)UE I write this as a *arnin# to the *or+!

DOCTORS ,A(( AS THE- *OR.

'oison #as &ear: A++ wear mas/s

In Hiroshima, 30 days after the 1statomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the

world, people are still dying, mysteriosly and horribly! people who were nin"red inthe cataclysm from an nknown something which I can only describe as the atomic

plage# Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city# It looks as if a monster steamrollerhas passed o$er it and s%ashed it ot of existence# I write these facts as dispassionately

as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world#

In this first testing grond of the atomic bomb I ha$e seen the most terrible and

frightening desolation in for years of war# It makes a blit&ed 'acific island seem like an

Eden# (he damage is far greater than photographs can show# )hen yo arri$e in

Hiroshima yo can look arond for twenty!fi$e and perhaps thirty s%are miles and yocan see hardly a bilding# It gi$es yo an empty feeling in the stomach to see sch man!

made destrction# I picked my way to a shack sed as a temporary police head%artersin the middle of the $anished city# Looking soth from there I cold see abot three milesof redish rbble# (hat is all the atomic bomb left of do&ens of blocks of city streets, of

bildings, homes, factories and hman beings# (here is "st nothing standing except

abot twenty factory chimneys!! chimneys with no factories# * grop of half a do&engtted bildings# *nd then again, nothing#

(he police chief of Hiroshima welcomed me eagerly as the first *llied

correspondent to reach the city# )ith the local manager ofDomei, the leading +apanesenews agency, he dro$e me throgh, or perhaps I shold say o$er, the city# *nd he took

me to hospitals where the $ictims of the bomb are still being treated# In these hospitals I

fond people who, when the bomb fell sffered absoltely no in"ries, bt now are dyingfrom the ncanny after!effects# or no apparent reason their health began to fail# (hey

lost appetite# (heir hair fell ot# -lish spots appeared on their bodies# *nd then

bleeding began from the ears, nose, and moth# *t first, the doctors told me, theythoght these were the symptoms of general debility# (hey ga$e their patients .itamin *

in"ections# (he reslts were horrible# (he flesh started rotting away from the hole

cased by the in"ection of the needle# *nd in e$ery case the $ictim died# (hat is one of


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the after!effects of the first atomic bomb man e$er dropped and I do not want to see any

more examples of it#

/y nose detected a pecliar odor nlike anything I ha$e e$er smelled before# It

is something like slphr, bt not %ite# I cold smell it when I passed a fire that was

still smoldering, or at a spot where they were still reco$ering bodies from the wreckage#-t I cold also smell it where e$erything was still deserted# (hey belie$e it is gi$en off

by the poisonos gas still issing from the earth soaked with radioacti$ity by the split

ranim atom# *nd so the people of Hiroshima today are walking throgh the forlorndesolation of their once prod city with ga&e masks o$er their moths and noses# It

probably does not help them physically# -t it helps them mentally#

rom the moment that this de$astation was loosed pon Hiroshima, the peoplewho sr$i$ed ha$e hated the white man# It is a hate, the intensity of which is almost as

frightening as the bomb itself# (he conted dead nmber 3,000# *nother 30,000 are

missing, which means certainly dead# In the day I ha$e stayed in Hiroshima, 100 people

ha$e died from its effects# (hey were some of the 13,000 seriosly in"red by theexplosion# (hese casalties might not ha$e been as high except for a tragic mistake# (he

athorities thoght this was "st another per!ort raid# (he plane flew o$er the targetand dropped the parachte which carried the bomb to its explosion point# (he *merican

plane passed ot of sight# (he all!clear was sonded and the people of Hiroshima came

ot from their shelters# *lmost a minte later the bomb reached the 2,000 foot altitde at

which it was timed to explode! at the moment when nearly e$eryone in Hiroshima was inthe streets#

Hndreds pon hndreds of the dead were so badly brned by the terrific heatgenerated by the bomb that it was not e$en possible to tell whether they were men or

women, old or yong# f thosands of others, nearer the center of the explosion, there

was no trace# (he theory in Hiroshima is that the atomic heat was so great that theybrned instantly to ashes! except that there were no ashes# If yo cold see what is left

of Hiroshima, yo wold think that London had not been toched by bombs# (he

Imperial 'alace, once an imposing bilding, is a heap of rbble three feet high ,andthere is one piece of the wall# 4oof, floors and e$erything else is dst#

n the morning of $ept. -thBurchett stum*led off the train in !o"yo to disco#er

that senior .$. officials had called a press conference to dampen down the story that had*een wired around the world. Brigadier General !homas /arrell, deputy head of the

supersecret anhattan 1roject, was e2plaining that the *om* had *een e2ploded at a

sufficient height o#er Hiroshima to a#oid any ris" of 3residual radiation. y first5uestion to the *riefing officer. Ha$e yo been to Hiroshima5 6o, he replied, *ut then

he e2plained, (hose I had seen in the hospital were $ictims of blast and brn, normal

after any big explosion# *pparently the +apanese doctors were incompetent to handlethem or lacked the right medication# He discounted allegations that those who had not

*een in the city at the time of the *last were later affected. )hy were fish still dying a

month after the blast, ) as"ed. !he spo"esman loo"ed pained. I6m afraid yo6$e fallen

$ictim to +apanese propaganda# Hiroshima was immediately put off *ounds. I was


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whisked to a 7 *rmy hospital where doctors told me my low with!corpscle cont was

cased by antibiotics I had been gi$en for a knee infection#

7ears later he found out this condition was related to radiation sic"ness. He died

of cancer in &'89, shortly after his *oo" was pu*lished.

!hus commenced a halfcentury of radiation o*fuscation. Burchetts firsthand

account was censored throughout the nited $tates. All atomic weapons research,

including radiation and fluoride studies :fluoride is a major ingredient in atomic weaponsde#elopment;, was ? :restricted data;, much of it *uried in

secret files filling three warehouses long after the +old War was o#er.

@2cerpts from Wilfred Burchetts *oo",Shadows of Hiroshima (1983)

As reported *y ynn Howard @hrle, freelance medical writer

$enior Biomedical 1olicy Analyst :pro *ono; rganic +onsumers Association

ehrle*irdorganicconsumers.org

burchett in hiroshima

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