SESSION V
EISENBUD:
26)
I thiuk that we had the same reaction in the scientific
community. There are a lot of opportunists among them. % was
quite common during those first few weeks for the younger peopie to
sidle up to me and ask how they could go about getting f*llowships in
the States or ask if | could, when 1 went back. send them some re-
prints, or ask how they could learn about a certain piece of equinment. As Chuck will recall, starting with Tsuzuki's visit to the
States in May, which was precipitated by this accident which had occurred two months before, there was a long series of exchanges.
We had that radiobiology conference inthe fall. The Division of
Biology and Medicine began te suppoct research in Japan and any
number of the young people began to come to this cou:try av the result of that incident.
FREMONT-SMITH:
So it was comparabie ina way.
EISENBUD: I chink we really have had the same types of ties but
this, I think, is a form of opportunism. [ presented to thern the
first sodium iodide crystal that they i.ad cver seen and they appieciated it very much, But [I'm sure that we couldn't say chat the same
was true at the level of the people, where I think there are some
scars.
There was one other differenc2. At -he height of the Japanese
furor which was, say, a week or two after the boat got into Japan
—I think it was the 26th of the month but it might have been a few
days later—the AEC resumed testing inthe Pacific. All through
thit spring until the «nd of May there was a series of tests and each
one of those, of course, precipitated new rumors and new concern,
All through that spring there were rumors of fishing bcats that had
been heavily irradiated, apart from the question of contaminated
fish. They were concerned, too, about the health of their fishermen.
MILLER: Merril, when you went to Japan, what kind of experts
did you wish you had with you who were not available? I can think of
two who might have helped you, One would have been a public relations man experienced inthis sort of thing, and another might have
been a person who knew Japanese culture exceedingly we)!,
EISENBUD: The Embassy presumably had this. I think Mr.
Allison had a good feel for Japancse culture. As I recall, he spoke
the language. As far as public relations were concerned, this was
controlled out of Washington.
We held an off-the- record briefing