The effect of nuclear tests on children today: The case of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K02650
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 09030:Childhood and nursery/pre-school education-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Hirabayashi Kyoko 京都大学, 医学研究科, 特定講師 (00634932)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 佐藤 健一 滋賀大学, データサイエンス教育研究センター, 教授 (30284219) ; 川野 徳幸 広島大学, 平和センター, 教授 (30304463)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 核被害 / 子ども / 核実験 / セミパラチンスク / カザフスタン / 放射線 / 被ばく / 核被害者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Through the two field surveys, we have interviewed 8 pairs of children with disabilities/diseases and their parents, and 5 healthy children. This resulted in a total of 29 pairs of children with disabilities/diseases and their parents which were interviewed since 2009. We performed text analysis on these responses. First, we picked out high frequency words, then we did a co-occurrence network analysis on those words.
The results showed that when children's disabilities/diseases were mentioned, nuclear test and its effects were mentioned at the same time with high frequency. This result indicates that the diseases and disabilities of today's children, who have not directly experienced nuclear tests, are more frequently mentioned in connection with nuclear tests.

Free Research Field

平和学、子ども学、社会（医）学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

「核被災者としての子ども」を扱う研究は数少ない。子ども自身が何を思い、何を感じ、何に苦しんでいるのか、直接子ども本人や子どもにかかわる人々の「声」を聞き取ることでしか得られない事実がある。その事実は核実験や核兵器の非人道性を浮き彫りにし、核廃絶へ向けての動きを後押しするであろう。また、福島をはじめとする国内外の核被災者の子どもへの理解を促進し、必要な支援の提供にも寄与するはずである。
加えて、2021年に発効された核兵器禁止条約の第6条（被害者に対する援助及び環境の修復）及び第7条（国際的な協力及び援助）履行の具体化に当たって、重要な示唆を与えることとなろう。