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It may not be apparent from articles like this or from Ralph Lapp's
book how much rapport developed berween the Japanese scientists and
people like Merril, John Harley, Lauren Donaldson and others who
worked closely with them and tried to help them sort facts from fiction, It was a very close working relationship, and as evidence of
this, in the special issuance (Reference 2) of the Institute of Chemical
Research at Kyoto, which is a special issue on the dosimetry, radiochemistry, and so forth, it says, “Furthermore, we should like to
acknowledge with deep appreciation the kindness of Dr. John H. Harley,
Chief of the Ana.ytical Branch, Health and Safety Division, New York
Operations Office, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, who provided us
with much valid Jiterature concerning the metabolism and internal
dose determination of fission products,'' Many of their articles have
a similar acknowledgement at the end of the article. [think this is
important to keep in mind; in spite of all the public panic, hoc pla,
newspaper reporting, personal accusations and unpleasant things that
may have occurred onthe streets, there was,among the disciplined,
thinking scientific community,a great deal of whclesome and consctructive exchange,
With that as sort of an introduction, I'm going to ask Merril first
to tell us a little about his experiences in the development of the
problem over there. Then Lauren can tell us something of his experiences. He was sent over «zt the request of the Japanese as an
expert on fisheries and radiation.
for a little bit from two people,

Finally,

lL hope we will have time

Dr. Schull and Dr.

Miller,

who were

at the time with ABCC, which was peripkerally involved, and that
they will give us a little picture of how they got dragged into the thing.
Keep to the same ground rules.

Everybody interrupt, if you want

to.

WOLFE: Befove you start I would like to know just what the date
was that the U.S. society found out about this fishing vessel.
EISENBUD: Well, it's a good place for me to start, They found
out the way the world found out, when the ship put into port,
WOLFE:

That was two weeks after?

EISENBUD:

Yes.

DONALDSON:

It was the 18th,

The 17th.

I think,

vere

SESSION Hi

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