Daigo Fukuryū Maru
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was a Japanese tuna fishing boat, which was exposed to and contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear device test on Bikini Atoll, on March 1, 1954.Kuboyama Aikichi, the boat's chief radioman, died a half a year later, on September 23, 1954, suffering from acute radiation sickness. He is considered the first victim of the hydrogen bomb.
Before the incident
In 1947, it launched from Koza, Wakayama as a fishing boat named . Later it became a tuna fishing boat in Yaizu, Shizuoka and was renamed the Daigo Fukuryū Maru.Unexpected radioactive contamination
Daigo Fukuryū Maru encountered the fallout from the U.S. Castle Bravo nuclear test on the Bikini Atoll , near the Marshall Islands, on March 1, 1954. The boat, along with its 23 fishermen aboard, as well as their catch of fish, were contaminated. They returned to Yaizu, Japan on September 14.
When the test was held, the Daigo Fukuryū Maru was catching fish outside the danger zone which the U.S. government had declared in advance. However, the test was over twice as powerful as it was predicted to be, and changes in weather patterns blew nuclear fallout, in the form of a fine ash, outside of the danger zone. The fishermen realized the danger, and attempted to escape from the area, but they took time to retrieve ropes from the sea, causing them to be exposed to radioactive fallout for several hours.
Later, the United States expanded the danger zone, and it was revealed that many fishery boats were fishing in the expanded zone at the time, besides the Daigo Fukuryū Maru. It is estimated that about a hundred fishing boats were contaminated to some degree by fallout from the test. Many hundreds of inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were also exposed, and a number of islands had to be evacuated entirely.
The tragedy of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru gave rise to a fierce anti-nuclear movement in Japan, rising especially from the fear that the contaminated fish had re-entered the market. The U.S. government feared this movement would lead to an anti-American movement, and attempted to quickly negotiate a settlement with the Japanese government (led at the time by the prime minister Yoshida Shigeru, who was considered to be a pro-U.S. politician). The U.S. government paid $200,000 (USD) to the victims. The Japanese government also acknowledged that it would not pursue the further reparations from the U.S. government.
The Daigo Fukuryū Maru is now on display in Tokyo.
Influence on popular culture
Five years after the accident, the Japanese film director Shindo Kaneto made a film titled Daigo Fukuryū Maru. The actor Uno Jukichi played the role of Kuboyama Aikichi.
This incident further inspired other movies such as Godzilla, which told the story of a monster mutated from radiation seeking revenge against civilization. In Western circles, Godzilla fans may be more familiar with this incident than the general population.
See also
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