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DASA 2019-2

THE FUKURYU MARU (LUCKY DRAGON) AND THE
PROBLEMS IN JAPAN
DUNHAM: I think we should go on to the Japanese fishing boat.
Ralph Lapp, you know, has written a book (Reference 4} on this
subject and there are sorne pictures in it of the boat and the crew.
I'll pass this around for anybody who hzsn't seen it. It was an old
tub, not up to modern Japanese fishing boat standards, but I think
it did have a radio aboard and that the radio was in constant communication with Japan throughout this whole two-week period. It's
not at all clear that anything was ever said about this episode in conversing back and forth.
FREMONT-SMITH:
all?
DUNHAM:

You mean they didn't report it to Japan at

No.

FREMONT-SMITH:

Not until they got in?

DUNHAM: Not until they got in. Anyway, the Japanese fishermen
actually developed skin lesions, which Bob will describe quite vividly for you with pictures, as appeared in the Rongelap people, perhaps a little more severe and the distribution somewhat different,

particularly along the belt line because they were all wearing trou-

sers and apparently collected a lot of the stuff right where the trousers were tied, The people are described as looking black, and you
can almost sensc—Ralph tells a good story of this part of it—howthe

almost panic situation developed over a period of 48 hours.
FREMONT-SMITH:
DUNHAM:

After they got the fallout.

After they got the fallout.

UPTON: Were they unaware until then that they had been exposed?
Is it clear from the log when they first became aware that they had
been exposed?
DUNHAM:
UPTON:
DUNHAM:

They saw the flash.

They had the fallout.

Did they know at the time?
Yes.

There was no question that they had a general

idea exactly what the whole story was and they hot- footed it straight
home. They made a bee line home, which in itself is significant.

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