Nuclear Minds: Japanese Psychiatry's Encounter with the Atom

Abstract

From 1945 on, only a handful of Japanese researchers tackled the psychological consequences of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The failure of the medical establishment to tackle psychological issues was to a large extent, at least initially, the result of American pressure and censorship, and the general secrecy that surrounded nuclear issues during the Cold War era. Coupled with Japanese psychiatrists' suspicion of trauma, this resulted in a complete lack of psychiatric care for survivors (hibakusha). Even after the occupation ended, Japanese psychiatrists mounted no campaign to fight for their patients' rights and conducted no large-scale research until the 1990s. Japanese psychiatry's reluctance to examine the trauma of the A-bomb, this paper argues, was the result of both long-standing aversion to war-related injuries and postwar entanglement with American research. Focusing on the work of Hiroshima- and Nagasaki-based doctors this paper will examine early psychiatric research on hibakusha and the factors that led to the long-term denial of care for survivors.