OO,

the

. The ghastly
facts about

-bomb

BL te Te Ge

de Tie Tie i the te tr ie Re eT ir

By PATRICK GOLDING

.

] N AN AGE being steadily brutalized by the Superfortresses, there are many who are not afraid of

death.

it has your number on it.””

But in the, aftermath of an
atom war there are worse things
than death. :

There is the horror of human
beings disintegrating into slaver-
ing, bloody, ulcerated, sub-human
lumps of tissue before
Comes, perhaps after
Weeks of agony.

There is the sickening disgust
of life in a whole doomed com-
munity for former men and wom-
€n who once walked and sang,
rejoiced in their strength, made
love and produced children of

several

Whom they were proud.

In the flash of an atomic ex-
Plosion they will have become re-
Volting creatures who long only
for the release of death, who are
blind and bald, continually vomit-
ing and bleeding, and who no
longer possess the desire or the
Ability to breed children.

Of the children already conceiv-

_ &d many would be stillborn. And

of the those whom the miracle of

life brought into the world, many.
- Would be obscene monsters, If
they survived, they would breed

Monsters in their turn. :
This is the prospect for those

‘Who survive the first ghastly 30

Seconds in an atom-bombed city.
t is the picture that emerges
from the painstaking researches
°f doctors from many countries

Who have studied the medical ef-

&cts of the atom bomb in Hiro-

: ot and Nagasaki.

The British rnment’s civil
der niet

€nse manual, in other respects

_ 2Uthoritative, tries to gloss over

effects of radiation. It de-

death:

clares in heavy type:

“Some of the radiological ef-
fects, although they must be tak-
en. into account, will not normally
be experienced; nor ‘should they
necessarily prove a serious haz-
ard to operations if they were
encountered.”

But the manual does not say.
just what the effects. of radio-
activity on human beings are.
Nor does it face the fact that the
radioactive effects of the Hiro-

“shima and Nagasaki bombs, hor-

rible as they were, were light in
comparison to the. probable ef-
fects of a bomb exploded at
ground level or in the water. ;
The experimental : under-water
atomic explosion at Bikini show-
ed that a radioactive spray and
mist could cover an area of sev-
eral square miles. Some of the

‘ships were radioactive after three

years, Others had to be sunk af-
ter a year because they were too
dangerous.

Radiation effects at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki were produced
mainly’ by gamma rays. But in a
ground-lével explosion neutrons
would be more important,

A paper on the medical effects
of atomic warfare, produced by .
the Sigerist Society, an associa-
tion of doctors, says:

“Neutrons are not only several
times more effective in damaging
tissue than gamma rays, but also,
in passing through the atmo-
sphere they produce a proportion
of highly-penetrating gamma ra-
diations.

“The gamma rays (produced di-
rectly by the bomb) were by far

ie

In ‘the face of increasingly insistent voices demanding the starting of an atomic war now, there
are fatalists who are resigned to taking their chance of annihilation; who say:

“Tt won’t hit you unless

the most important factors i
causing radiation sickness at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the
effects resulted in ‘casualties who
died within a few days, and others
with all the intermediate stages
up to death after the sixth week
following the explosion.” :

So widespread would be the ef-
fects of radiation from a single
bomb that a writer in the authori-
tative Canadian Medical Associa-
tion Journal says that any atom
bomb rescue services should be
situated at least three miles from
the site of an explosion to avoid
contamination. ‘

He suggests that these rescue
services should “concentrate on
casualties beyond a two-mile rad-
ius from the explosion center,
since those within this radius are
likely to die anyhow of radiation
sickness,”

The exact way in which gamma
rays cause damage to the human
body is not known. They leave a
trail of destruction as they pass
through the body; the effects of
this trail are often not noticed
for some time,

But enough is known among
medieal men who have studied
Japanese casualties to present a

| terrifying picture. .

Repulsive and sickening as th
known facts are, they deserve to
be emphasized again and again,
until every citizen knows just
what would be the effects on the
human beings of the bomb the
warmakers would like to drop.

e

_ The conspiracy of silence must
be smashed. The facts must be
faced. Here, in the unemotional

.

By GURBAKSH SINGH

A Stockholm Appeal with

its colossal campaign for
signatures is, I believe, the
giteatest mobilisation in all
history of the collective human
will for the happiness of man-
kind. }

I have signed the peace
pledge because this alone jn the
midst of a war-mangled
world has at last justified my
lingering faith that even in
my lifetime there will dawn on
earth an era in which peace
will pervade all humanity, its
art, its songs, as breath per-
vades all life and never again

from starmbegemmed skies.

I have signed it because I
am a writer. How many a
dream of mine is made mean-
ingléss to those instilled with
belief -in the inevitability of
war! How many a mind I
might impress is unable to read
my books because the wealth
that would educate it is wasted
in futile wars.

Before being a writer I am
a lover, whose hunger for love
and beauty is boundless. But
in the peaceless world men are
not allowed means nor leisure
to love and be beautiful. The
world I live in is blemished
with bombs, scarred with
swords, and pitted with gun-
shots. Its eyes remain half-_clos-
ed with fear—the fear of mas-
ters, of jails, of poverty, of
sickness, of old age, and above
all the fear of atom and hydro-
gen bombs, only a few of
which are said to. be enough to
obliterate the last living soul
on earth.

e
{> T have signed thé Appeal be-

' cause it thrills me with the
vision of an invincible army of
peace crusaders; all singers in
whose songs stir the love of
the past and the future; all
painters whose brushes are
pregnant with countless lines
of beauty and strength; all
writers whose pens, dipped in
the people’s heart, write stories
of unfulfilled longings; all
young men overflowing with
dreams: of love and chivalry;
all young women whose youth-
full bosoms heave a constant
welcome to life; all mothers’
athrob with fear as their boys
March to feed the devouring
cannons; all workers whose

Why I signed

the peace appeal

shall death and disease ‘rain.

Sweat and blood have be.
stowed such glorious features
on this formless earth; all
peasants whose ungrudgin
labor keeps alive the aes “4
less world-builders; all scien-
tists who have from the heart
of the tiniest atom snatched
its limitless stores of energy,
and who have lost no time in
declaring that they will safe-
guard strictly their findings
from the warmongers, and de-
vote them to the service of
mankind. 4

I have signed it because I
have read with tears in my
eyes the harrowing tale of a
score of children who survived
miraculously the utter annihi-
lation of Nagasaki and Hiro-
shima. They, with their par.
ents, had on the night previous
retired full of hopes for the
morrow, but just -with the
Sunrise, at 8 o’clock, they felt

- around them a surging sea of
fire, and before they could
make out anything, all life in
the great cities had been stilled
and burnt to ashes.

I have signed it, as thus I
sign against all wars of ag-
gression, which in their entire
history have not decided even
the smallest issue. Whether
actually on or in the process of
Preparation, war swallows up
more than half the fruits of
people’s hard labor. The
moment this ominous threat of
war is removed for good, there
will be wealth enough to make
all people’s lives not merely
livable, but eitrehey enjoy-
able.

I have signed it because I .
believe the hundreds of mil-_
lions of signatures affixed to it

will not be mere signatures
but decision that,
no people on earth longing to
live in peace and love need
ever fear atomic massacre.

I certainly feel happier and
more hopeful than I did before
signing this great appeal, and
I would be glad to stake on it
all the little I am worth.

I wish to greet lovingly all
the men and women with
whom my humble signature
has linked me this instant.

language of a doctor, is what
happens to an atom bomb victim
who is not fortunate enough to be
one of the 50,000 killed outright.

The cells of the body which are
most sensitive to the rays are
those which are actively dividing,

‘ e.g., blood and sex cells. The re-

sults of their breakdown often
produce. poisonous substances’
harmful to the body,

-Owing to the changes in the
blood cells, the radiation victim
is likely to suffer severe anemia,
infection such as blood poisoning,
severe ulcerations of the mouth,
heavy bleeding from openings in
the body.

Injuries to the sex cells result
in a man losing the sexual im-
pulse, in a woman suffering a
premature menopause.

Other effects are vomiting, a
watery, bloody diarrhea, hemor-
rhages, baldness and fever.

After relatively heavy exposure
to radiation the victim usually
suffers from sickness, diarrhea,
compete exhaustion excess of
tears and passing of urine. The
Symptoms may pass off only to
be folowed by more severe symp-
toms later,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER

Death may occur from shock in
the first five to 48 hours. After
recovery from shock death may

still occur at almost any time up __

to three months.

Blindness atrophy of the skin,
giving birth to monstrous or de-
formed children are probable late

results of repeated exposure to
the rays. k

Would-be soothing words in
government publications cannot
gloss over this terrible prospect.
Far from reducing these after-
effects, the government’s propos-
ed civil defense measures would
actually increase them.

For the more people who-escape _
the first blast of an atom bomb, |
the greater number of potential
victims there would be for the
gamma rays and the neutrons.

Who, except those who would _
destroy all human life rather than ©
accept changes in human y
against their liking, is prepared
to hand on this disgusting distor-
tion of life to the third and fourth
generation?

There is only one protection
against this ultimate degradation -
of humanity. It is to see that the
bomb is not dropped.

29, 1950—-PAGE 5