Japanese doctors visit Hiroshima, Nagasaki survivors

LOS ANGELES -- Kaz Suyeishi pointed to her heart and spoke of the wound that she and all other survivors of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, bear to this day.

"We have a scar in here," said Suyeishi, a feisty 76-year-old who lives in suburban Los Angeles. "And this scar will never disappear until we die."

Others among the estimated 300,000 who survived attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, struck by an even fiercer bomb three days later, are less fortunate.

Long-term studies reveal they suffer from elevated rates of leukemia and thyroid, colon and breast cancer, as well as cardiovascular diseases. Included in the group are roughly 1,000 U.S. citizens who survived the two atomic bomb blasts.

On Friday, a group of Japanese physicians from the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association began a trans-Pacific house call of sorts, checking up on dozens of survivors living in the United States.

The checkups, equal parts goodwill gesture, epidemiological study and reunion of friends, have taken place every two years since 1977. This year's exams end Monday and should cover as many as 180 of what the Japanese call hibakusha, or survivors of the bomb.

The team will also examine survivors living in Honolulu, San Francisco and Seattle. A smaller program exists to track those living in a handful of South American nations.

"It's more humanitarian, for the purpose of reassuring the survivors," said Dr. George Yamauchi, who helps coordinate the project under the aegis of the Los Angeles County Medical Association.

On Friday, dozens of elderly Japanese-Americans crowded a Little Tokyo medical office, where doctors collected biological samples and conducted full physical examinations.

Los Angeles resident Akira Sasano, 73, said the Japanese doctors have experience with radiation victims that their U.S. counterparts might not. That can put to rest concerns that radiation is the cause of every medical complaint that might crop up, he said.

"You get scared," Sasano, who lost half of his high school classmates in the bombing of Hiroshima. "When something happens, you think, 'Maybe? Maybe? Maybe?'"

The average age of the survivors now exceeds 70. That so many have lived so long suggests they received relatively low doses of radiation, Yamauchi said.

Those closer to ground zero died immediately or in the weeks and months that followed the bombings. The Japanese estimate more than 200,000 people were killed or injured in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Age vs. radiation

With age comes the standard litany of medical problems typical of any population, including high blood pressure, doctors said. How much can attributed to radiation is not clear.

"I don't think they have a clear-cut way of differentiating between aging and radiation," said Masa Teranishi, 45, a project volunteer whose father survived Hiroshima.

When problems do come to light during the exams, the Japanese government offers free treatment, Teranishi said.

Keeping the survivors united also serves as a reminder of the damage that weapons of mass destruction can bring, said Dr. James Yamazaki, 86, a Los Angeles pediatrician who traveled to Nagasaki in 1949 and spent two years studying the bomb's aftermath.

"We have here a group of Americans who are survivors of an atomic weapon, who can tell their country what it is to encounter," Yamazaki said. "That is so important at this time, when the world is embroiled in nuclear weaponry."