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Let Chromosomes Speak: The Cytogenetics Project at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC)

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Abstract

Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) are “witnesses” of the atomic bombings, not just in a standard sense but also in the instrumental sense. For medical and scientific experts, hibakusha are biological resources of unparalleled scientific value. Over the past seventy years, the hibakusha bodies have narrated what it means to be exposed to radiation. In this paper, I explore studies at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) that examined hibakusha bodies as sites where risk could be read. I focus on a period from the mid-1950s to 1975, during which new methods, practices, and technologies allowed ABCC scientists to investigate chromosomes as a way to study radiation exposure and human risk. By focusing on chromosomal aberrations, ABCC scientists connected their work directly to the emerging infrastructure for radiobiology at the time. ABCC administrators actively sought out such prestige, especially given their relationship with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The shift in approach would also alleviate some public relations problems with which the institution was struggling. Launching a cytogenetics program required some older practices that had assumed American privilege and dominance to be abandoned. Eventually, the decision to let chromosomes speak of radiation exposure brought about fundamental changes in ABCC, which came to symbolize the model for future studies at the organization, especially as ABCC was transitioning to a US-Japan binational organization. More broadly, this case highlights the intricate scientific negotiation of radiation risk where uncertainties necessarily prevail.

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Notes

  1. Literally “bomb-affected people.” The term atomic-bomb survivors is often employed as the English translation for hibakusha. However, the original term hibakusha does not carry the connotation of heroism that may be implied in the term survivor. As such, hibakusha will be used throughout this paper to refer to those who experienced and were exposed to radiation through the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

  2. Testimony by Fujimori Toshiki, Assistant Secretary General of Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Sufferers Organizations) at the United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination, New York, 27 March 2017. https://futureoflife.org/2017/03/29/testimony-fujimori-toshiki-hiroshima-survivor/

  3. For a broader and more extensive exploration of how postwar radiobiology came to serve the interests of the Cold War state, see Kraft (2009), especially pp.183–189.

  4. This article is part of a larger dissertation project on ABCC’s work on dosimetry, tentatively entitled “Reconstructing the 60s: The Development of Atomic-bomb Dosimetry Systems, 1945–2002.” In my project, I examine the role of hibakusha as witnesses from different angles.

  5. Unlike how Timothy Mitchell analyzed the role of mosquitoes in the history of Egypt in “Can the Mosquito Speak?” (2002), I use the expression “chromosomes speak” more as a rhetorical than an analytical device.

  6. The scheme was such that these physicians would be recruited by the NAS and commissioned by the Public Health Services (PHS), which provided two years’ credit toward the physician’s draft.

  7. Seymour Jablon, who was a member of the Francis Committee, spoke of Cannan in less positive terms. He thought that Cannan formulated the Francis Committee because he was unwilling to concede that “the [ABCC] program was a failure” (1988, p. 36).

  8. AHS, which still continues to date, is a clinical research program based on biennial health examinations of approximately 20,000 subjects. These subjects are selected from the Life Span Study (LSS), which is a research program investigating life-long health effects based on epidemiologic (cohort and case–control) studies. About 120,000 subjects selected from residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki identified through the national census in 1950 have been followed since that time, including 94,000 atomic bomb survivors and 27,000 unexposed individuals. In 1977, an additional 2400 LSS participants and 1000 in utero-exposed persons were added to the AHS.

  9. Draft Report, “A Proposed Medical Genetics Program,” prepared by T.S. Edgington, dated March 31, 1962. ABCC Collection, Series 3, National Academy of Sciences Archives, Washington, DC; hereafter: NAS Archives.

  10. Eugene P. Cronkite to R. Keith Cannan, January 4, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  11. Shields Warren to R. Keith Cannan, November 27, 1961, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives. The letter, as the stamp indicates, was received by Cannan on November 29.

  12. Francis Weber to Hardin B. Jones, December 28, 1961, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives. In this letter Weber also talks about the difficulty of tracking down relevant work being done, since it is “only now coming to a fuller description in scientific literature.”

  13. Inter-Office Memorandum “Chromosome Aberrations and Radiation” from R. Keith Cannan to Francis J. Weber. December 14, 1961, ABCC Collection. Series 3, NAS Archives; From Francis J, Weber to William C. Moloney. (carbon copy), December 27, 1961, ABCC Collection. Series 3, NAS Archives. For the Marshallese population and their experience of radiation exposure, also see Nagasawa (2015) and Mitchell (2016).

  14. James V. Neel to R. Keith Cannan, December 11, 1961, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  15. Hardin B. Jones to George B. Darling at ABCC (Cannan’s carbon copy), December 15, 1961, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  16. Francis J. Weber to James V. Neel, December 28, 1961, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives; R. Keith Cannan to Stuart C. Finch (Chief, Department of Medicine, ABCC), December 29, 1961. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  17. Memo “Progress on Possible Cytogenetics Study in the ABCC Population” from Francis J. Weber to R. Keith Cannan, January 4, 1962. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  18. The genetic study had existed in ABCC as mentioned above, and in fact had had extensive resources invested in it. However, it was based on the study of human inheritance (Lindee 1994, pp. 57–79). The exception was the work attempted by cytogeneticist Masuo Kodani. One of his assignments was a study of testicular materials for evidence of chromosome damage. However, as Neel explained, the technical problems proved insurmountable, and it was not possible to get satisfactory data on chromosome aberrations in this material. James V. Neel to R. Keith Cannan, December 11, 1961. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives. For more about Kodani’s scientific work, see Smocovitis (2011). Also see Comfort (2012) for the so-called “medical turn” in human genetics.

  19. Memo “Summary of Visit with Dr. Theodore Puck and Associates at University of Colorado Medical Center” from Francis J. Weber to R. Keith Cannan, January 16, 1962. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives. Also see Santesmases (2017, pp. 408–415). Human karyotyping also had the advantage of visualizing the effects of radiation (de Chadarevian 2015; Santesmases 2017). This is another aspect that Neel emphasized as potentially having “particular appeal to the staff in Japan.” James V. Neel to Francis J. Weber, January 8, 1962. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  20. From Theodore T. Puck to Hardin B. Jones, October 27, 1961, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  21. ABCC Interoffice Memorandum, “Statement on Cytogenetic Studies,” from Seymour Jablon to George B. Darling, June 18, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  22. R. Keith Cannan to George B. Darling, June 20, 1963, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  23. Arthur Bloom to Herbert N. Gardner, July 11, 1967, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  24. Charles L. Dunham to George B. Darling, May 25, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  25. Report, “Implications of Recent Cytogenetic Studies at ABCC,” by Arthur D. Bloom. To be presented to the Japan Advisory Council, Tokyo, Japan, 28 April 1967, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  26. Report, “Implications of Recent Cytogenetic Studies at ABCC,” by Arthur D. Bloom. To be presented to the Japan Advisory Council, Tokyo, Japan, 28 April 1967, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  27. Newspaper article, “ABCC wo torimaku mondai [Issues surrounding the ABCC],” Sankei Shimbun, August 5. 1967. Awa Akio Personal Collection. Translation by the author.

  28. ABCC Interoffice Memorandum, “Statement on Cytogenetic Studies,” from Seymour Jablon to George B. Darling, June 18, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives. Talking generally about the techniques involved in human karyotyping, Santesmases also described the shift to blood samples as a displacement of “invasive biopsy as an easily accessible source for human cytological analysis” (2017, pp. 404–405).

  29. In his work on the history of human experiments, Chamayou (2018) has an interesting discussion of how introduction of experimental medicine may be linked to doctors and scientists becoming less concerned with the political and cultural embeddedness of the very work they engage with. See also Kay (1996).

  30. Leland D. Stoddard to R. Keith Cannan, February 1, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  31. Stuart C. Finch to R. Keith Cannan, January 12, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  32. Leland D. Stoddard to Dr. Sidney C. Madden, January 29, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives; Table, “Total Number of Autopsies Performed, ABCC 1948 – 1 September 1967,” September 28, 1967, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives; Table, “Table 1. Autopsy Rate in the JNIH-ABCC Mortality Sample by Year of Death and by City,” no date, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  33. George. B. Darling to R. Keith Cannan, May 7, 1962, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  34. George B. Darling to Herbert N. Gardner, November 8, 1966. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  35. Report, “Cytogenetic Studies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan,” prepared by M. A. Bender, April 22, 1963, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  36. Report, “Cytogenetic Studies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan,” prepared by M. A. Bender, April 22, 1963, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  37. Memorandum (translation) “Impression of Dr. Bender’s Letter” from Masanori Nakaidzumi to George B. Darling, July 9, 1963. ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  38. Memorandum (translation), “Impression of Dr. Bender’s Letter,” from Masanori Nakaidzumi to George B. Darling, July 9, 1963, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  39. ABCC Interoffice Memorandum, “International Symposium on Radiation-Induced Chromosome Aberrations in Man, Scotland, October 12–15, 1966,” from Arthur D. Bloom to George B. Darling, October 24, 1966, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  40. Darling himself had extended his term which was originally only for two years like others. Eventually, he stayed at the ABCC for fifteen years, until 1972.

  41. George B. Darling to Arthur D. Bloom, November 8, 1966, ABCC Collection, Series 3, NAS Archives.

  42. In March of 1963, Michael Bender of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) visited Makino at Hokkaido University in Sapporo. In October 1964, Ernest Chu, also from ORNL, visited Makino again to ask for his support for ABCC’s cytogenetic work. During the summer of 1966, Bloom visited Hokkaido University from ABCC and asked for research collaboration. Makino declined. Bloom did not give up, and in September of the same year, he invited Makino to present at ABCC’s annual Program Review. Michael A. Bender to Akio Awa, April 5, 1963; Akio Awa to Michael A. Bender, April 23, 1963; Michael A. Bender to Akio Awa, May 4, 1963; “I Quit!” 1995, Awa Personal Collection.

  43. Makino’s lab was well connected to the laboratory of Charles Pomerat. Many of his students were trained at Pomerat’s lab, including Akio Awa, who stayed there for two years, 1960–1962. It is also noteworthy that cytogenetics was an area in postwar biomedicine in which Japanese scientists were making prominent contributions. As Santesmases describes, this is linked to Japan’s cultural heritage of plants and animals (2017, p. 412).

  44. Makino was nearing his retirement age, and the issue of where to place his students was becoming a serious source of concern. He may have thought that ABCC could be a good option, especially given the much higher pay they could offer compared to other Japanese institutions (for a postdoctoral level position, the salary was about 60% higher). Awa believes that Makino also had a plan to take this as an opportunity to establish the first independent cytogenetics laboratory in Japan with the help of funding from the US. However, this did not turn out to be the case. See “I Quit!” 1995, Awa Personal Collection, and also the author’s interviews with Awa Akio in Hiroshima, conducted on 17 and 18 May 2018.

  45. “Employment Agreement” between M.E. Rappaport, ABCC Business Administrator and Awa Akio, on January 16, 1967, Awa Akio Personal Collection.

  46. “I Quit!” 1995, Awa Personal Collection.

  47. Masahiro Ito. 1998. “Awa Sensei to no Deai [Dr Awa and I],” in I Quit. Awa Personal Collection.

  48. ABCC Annual Report, 1971–1972. Awa Personal Collection.

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    Sumiko Hatakeyama

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Hatakeyama, S. Let Chromosomes Speak: The Cytogenetics Project at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC). J Hist Biol 54, 107–126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-021-09628-7

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