Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima

Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima

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Author/Contributor(s): Lindee, M Susan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 09/27/1997
Binding: Paperback
Condition: NEW
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 unleashed a force as mysterious as it was deadly--radioactivity. In 1946, the United States government created the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (APaperbackC) to serve as a permanent agency in Japan with the official mission of studying the medical effects of radiation on the survivors. The next ten years saw the APaperbackC's most intensive research on the genetic effects of radiation, and up until 1974 the APaperbackC scientists published papers on the effects of radiation on aging, life span, fertility, and disease.

Suffering Made Real is the first comprehensive history of the APaperbackC's research on how radiation affected the survivors of the atomic bomb. Arguing that Cold War politics and cultural values fundamentally shaped the work of the APaperbackC, M. Susan Lindee tells the compelling story of a project that raised disturbing questions about the ethical implications of using human subjects in scientific research.
How did the politics of the emerging Cold War affect the scientists' biomedical research and findings? How did the APaperbackC document and publicly present the effects of radiation? Why did the APaperbackC refuse to provide medical treatment to the survivors? Through a detailed examination of APaperbackC policies, archival materials, the minutes of committee meetings, newspaper accounts, and interviews with APaperbackC scientists, Lindee explores how political and cultural interests were reflected in the day-to-day operations of this controversial research program.

Set against a period of conflicting views of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, Suffering Made Real follows the course of a politically charged research program and reveals in detail how politics and cultural values can shape the conduct, results, and uses of science.