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A medical team from Hiroshima, Japan, will travel to Hawaii to provide free, comprehensive medical examinations for atomic-bomb survivors.
The team, made up of surgeons, obstetricians and internists, will be in Honolulu on July 5-6. Representatives from Hiroshima and Nagasaki prefectural governments will also travel to Hawaii to provide assistance to survivors.
The team has traveled to Honolulu every two years since 1981 with the assistance of the American Society of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors Hawaii Chapter, which is coordinating the exams for survivors.
Approximately 150 survivors live in Hawaii, said Mae Oda, volunteer coordinator.
Medical teams also travel to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle as well as to South America. The Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association, Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Hiroshima prefectural government, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation and the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Casualty Council have also supported medical missions.
THE PROGRAM started in 1977 as a humanitarian effort to provide medical assistance to survivors who live in the United States.
On Aug. 6, 1945, more than 140,000 people were killed when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. Three days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Approximately 74,000 people were killed.
Japan surrendered Aug. 15.
The average age of the survivors in Hawaii is 75. Many of the survivors were either born in the islands or on the mainland.
Though it has been more than 60 years since the bombings, survivors can vividly recall the destruction: dead bodies on the roadside, cries for help and charred structures.
All survivors and their children are encouraged to register for the free examination. Eligible survivors are legally defined in Japan as those who were within city limits when the bombs fell, went into the city two weeks after the bombs fell, came in contact with other survivors while caring for them, or were present at the bombings as an "in utero" baby.
Some survivors are invited to Hiroshima for further examination and testing, Oda said.
For more information on the free medical examinations, call Oda at 961-2409 or Hatsue Kusano at 455-8534.
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