According to [a doctor’s] examinations after the accident, the number of white blood cells of children living in the [Tokyo] metropolitan area was decreasing. And he added that neutrophils among white blood cells were particularly badly decreasing…Today, the doctor is saying that for every ten children in Tokyo, nine of them have below the standard number of neutrophils.
From Fukushima 311 Voices
August 10, 2018
Reprinted with permission
Comment from Beyond Nuclear International:
On March 11, 2018, we profiled a courageous young mother — Yoko Shimosawa — as she stood on a street and spoke with passion, in English and Japanese, about the threats posed by nuclear power. Shimosawa had evacuated from Tokyo to Kansai with her two children, once her daughter became sick.
Now a relentless campaigner to bring truth to light, she told her full story during a visit to Hiroshima on August 6, marking the 73rd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on that city. Below, in powerful and moving testimony, she recounts the persistent health threats and risks to populations still living in the region and draws a parallel between the “invisible and quiet nuclear bombing” of the Fukushima and Hiroshima populations across the decades.
73 years ago today, many precious lives were instantly destroyed by the terrible blast and the heat from the atomic bomb. Did you know, however, that the atomic bomb has had another, lasting effects? It’s an invisible, quiet and lasting effects from the nuclear bombing, called “internal radiation exposure.”
7 years ago, Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant had an accident and the nuclear accident developed into a nuclear disaster. Today, we Japanese have to live with this invisible and quiet nuclear bombing.