Chapter 02: Experiences in the Aftermath of the Atomic Bomb Become an Inspiration
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Komaki talks about her own early memories, first of life in Osaka and then in Hiroshima during the post-war period. She also discusses the effect it had on her, inspiring her interest in medicine, in research, and eventually in her focus on radiation treatments.
She begins with very early childhood memories of “being always hungry.” She talks about her mother’s struggles to feed the family and a family separation, when she was sent to live with her mother’s sister to ease the family burden.
Next, she talks about her schooling and the role of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission [renamed, Radiation Effects Research Foundation], set up early after the war to monitor the effects of radiation on Japanese citizens.
Dr. Komaki then talks about her friendship with fellow pupil, Sadako Sasaki, who would die from radiation-effect leukemia and who would inspire her own commitment to become a physician. [This story has been captured in several publications; Miss Sadako’s story has been told in the book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.]
Identifier
KomakiR_01_20181106_C02
Publication Date
11-6-2018
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Personal Background; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences; Understanding Cancer, the History of Science, Cancer Research; Cultural/Social Influences; Global Issues –Cancer, Health, Medicine
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, when do your own personal memories of the city and all of this process, when does that really begin?
R. Komaki, MD:
You know actually, I remember. The first thing I remember --I was like two and a half years old-- I was hungry, I remember. I was sitting on the rail of the sliding door and I still have a memory of [sitting on top of] the sand. I was waiting for my mother coming back with fish or something to give me to eat. At that time, my father was still military. [ ] This is the time [when] we moved from Amagasaki to Wakayama. That’s the place our house was, and it was right at the ocean. My mother had to go to practice using a bamboo sword, just in case American soldiers arrived [from] the ocean, [onto] the beach, to attack the Japanese people who survived there. So all the women, they had to practice how to use this bamboo sword.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So it was self-defense training.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right, right. All the women, they had to do that to protect the family and themselves. And after that practice every morning, they got some fish, and she brought the fish to us, and that’s the way we could eat. I was so hungry and I was [eagerly] waiting for my mother [to return with food]. That’s the first memory I have, yeah, I was two years old, or two and a half.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So what do you remember yourself, of going back to Hiroshima when you were four?
R. Komaki, MD:
When I was four years old, I was always hungry. That’s all I remember. Anything I could have … My mother was always out trying to find some food, and whatever she had, you know like kimonos, she was selling to get some rice for us. Then, I went to school. I still remember …Because we did not have enough food in Hiroshima, my father’s older sister --she must be five years older than my father. She just loved me so much because [of my similar] appearance [with my father]. She had two sons but no daughter and she really adopted me to be her own daughter, although you know, her sons were much older and they were already grown Up [and had left home]. I was sent to her place that’s outside of Hiroshima. They call it Kure. I stayed with her when I was four years old. For six months, one year, I stayed with her.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What was her name?
R. Komaki, MD:
Mrs. Goto. [Kane is] her first name. [ ]
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
We can add it later.
R. Komaki, MD:
I always called her Aunt Goto.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s fine, we can add it later when you have a look at the transcript, sure. So you lived with her for about a year.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And this was because it was just so difficult, your mom was struggling.
R. Komaki, MD:
To eat, yeah. Actually, her husband, Mrs. Goto’s husband, was a dentist, and he died, and that’s why she was very lonesome. The boys grew up and left the town. Her older son became a newspaper writer, and I think he lived in Tokyo. So this Kure is the place on the top of the hill, and there was a military base in Kure, and that’s the area where my aunt, Mrs. Goto, she lived. Because of the base, my next door people, they had small children just about my age. Their father always brought some Spam or [gum] from the base, and that was incredibly tasty for me. I always ate some dried sweet potatoes, corn, sugarcane, whatever was around, but it was better than Hiroshima, where you know, my parents were. So I was raised by her for about one year.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So how long did it take before family life kind of got more back to normal?
R. Komaki, MD:
[00:30:3] It took a long time, I must have been about ten years old, so it took six years, five or six years.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow. Now what about schooling during that time, were you going to school?
R. Komaki, MD:
Yes, I entered school when I was six years old, and then my father had to move, so I moved four times from Matsuyama, back to Hiroshima. I was nine years old and when I went to Noboricho Elementary School, I met Miss Sadako Sasaki. [ ] We were same [grade at] school but we were in different classes. This was a very big elementary school in the middle of Hiroshima, Noboricho Elementary School. The reason why I met with her, that was in the autumn meeting, the athletic meeting. Every October in Japan, we have the school athletic meetings and there is running, mainly running [ ]. Sadako was a very fast runner and we had to compete [by] class [ ]. There was a relay, and Sadako and myself, we were competing which one were going to win. We were always the last person who ran the relay competition. She was faster than me [the first] year. I always focused, you know: I’m going to compete with her. Then, the following year, she became very, very anemic and with shortness of breath and she could not run, [as fast as she used to] and she was found to have leukemia.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now you met her, was it in 1951, would that have been the year that you met?
R. Komaki, MD:
When I was nine years old, after we came back, the whole family came back from Matsuyama.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So 1952.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right. So she was living just outside of Hiroshima, the suburbs, we call it “Koi.” Her father was a barber. She was exposed to the atomic bomb when she was [two years old] [ ], but that was not the epicenter and so she survived. She hated to go to --we called it the ABCC, Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission—[for check ups]. They followed all those people who were exposed to the atomic bomb. They had to have their blood tests and if there was any abnormal blood samples. They had to have bone marrow.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So this is the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, and it was renamed the Radiation Effects Research Foundation later on.
R. Komaki, MD:
That’s correct, RERF.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So this was established by Americans?
R. Komaki, MD:
Yes.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
It was Americans.
R. Komaki, MD:
No. At the beginning, that was totally supported by the United States. Then, this was about 20 years ago, they decided to [support the ABCC 50% from the USA and 50% from Japan]. At that time, they changed the name to the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, RERF.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I’m sorry, I kind of missed what you said. You were talking about what the ABCC did during those early years.
R. Komaki, MD:
Yeah. So they followed …the American government set up, on the top of, we call it Hijiyama, the small mountain, they created the research foundation, the building there. All the people who worked there, mainly the researchers and the physicians, came from Yale University, and the people who are interested in effects of the radiation to human beings. This was their obligation to the government for four years, so they worked like a military or army, in the service. They came to ABCC and a lot of people there were interested in radiation effects on human beings, the thyroid effects, so endocrine specialists and hematologist and some cardiologists and internists --what kind of [the] effects [on] all those people, whoever survived. All those babies, children or adults, young adults, and elderly people, they were followed once a year. They had to have blood tests and they had to have a physical exam.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Were there any treatments offered or any kind of care?
R. Komaki, MD:
Oh yeah, yeah. When they were found to have abnormal thyroid function or a [abnormal physical examination, they were required to have adequate tests and treatment]. Or if a blood sample was wrong, they had to have a bone marrow examination. If they were found to have leukemia related to atomic bomb, they were admitted to the institution, ABCC, and they were given Cyclophosphamide [or other medication]. Whatever was available around that time, they were [given for free].
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What was the reaction of the Japanese people, to the establishment of that research foundation?
R. Komaki, MD:
They hated it, they hated.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Now why?
R. Komaki, MD:
Because they dropped the atomic bomb. [They thought that they were] human experiments.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, that was sort of my feeling.
R. Komaki, MD:
And Sadako cried and cried every time she had to go there. They sent a jeep to pick those people up, and they had to go for annual checkup, so she always tried to hide when they came. Yeah.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Were there any punishments for people who tried to avoid going?
R. Komaki, MD:
No.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, okay, I’m just curious about that.
R. Komaki, MD:
No, no, there was no such thing, but she had to go. I think she avoided that at the beginning, but when she became ill, she was found to be anemic. They had to get her bone marrow examination and she was found to have acute myelogenous leukemia and she was admitted to the Red Cross Hospital, because ABCC, they did not have long-term bed situation. She didn’t speak any English and she was nine years old. No, she was ten when she was found to have leukemia, and she was admitted to Red Cross Hospital and she lived only one year.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Wow. She was in the hospital the whole time?
R. Komaki, MD:
Well, she was on and off . She had to get steroids, and she became really moon-faced from the side effects of the steroid, but whenever she was in remission she was discharged and she spent some time, especially like at festival season or New Year’s Day, she was with family, she was discharged.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So you got a chance to see her?
R. Komaki, MD:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
You visited her in the hospital?
R. Komaki, MD:
[Yes,] we visited when she was in the hospital, a couple times. Around that time when she was in the [Red Cross] hospital, she was folding origami birds. You know, if she could have made one thousand origami birds, she could recover from her illness. That’s what the Japanese say. So every time she took medication, the medication was inside of the wax paper, and square. After she took medication, she folded an origami bird. I think she made only like 440, and they’re still in the museum at Peace Park.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
She became very famous because of that.
R. Komaki, MD:
Right.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Well let me ask you one question, because weren’t the birds, they were cranes, or was it any kind of bird that she folded?
R. Komaki, MD:
No, no, no, that’s a crane.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
They were cranes. And what’s the significance of the cranes in particular?
R. Komaki, MD:
Cranes and the turtles [have longevity]. Cranes can live one thousand years, that’s what the Japanese people say, and also, [they are] the symbol of happiness. So that’s why Japanese people, they would like to fold the cranes whenever we celebrate, a wedding or New Year’s Day. We put the cranes and the turtle, [ ] that are symbols of longevity and happiness.
Recommended Citation
Komaki, Ritsuko MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 02: Experiences in the Aftermath of the Atomic Bomb Become an Inspiration" (2018). Interview Chapters. 1283.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1283
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