Comparative Research Focused on Establishing International Cooperation between Hibakusha Communities

2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23401028
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Historical studies in general
• Research Institution: Hiroshima City University
• Principal Investigator: JACOBS Robert 広島市立大学, 付置研究所, 准教授 (60423969)
• Research Collaborator: BRODERICK Mick マードック大学(オーストラリア), 准教授
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2014-03-31
• Keywords: ヒバクシャ研究 / 核の植民地主義 / トラウマ研究 / 核実験 / 核戦争 / 放射能の影響 / 歴史的社会的記憶

Research Abstract

People are exposed to radiation in many different ways. We already knew a great deal about the medical effects of radiation exposures to human beings, but this study is the first that exained the social and cultural effects of radiation exposures across cultural boundaries. Working at sites of radiation exposure arount the world we gathered numerous oral history interviews with people expoed to ionizing radiation and also sometimes interviewed their family members.
We found that radiation exposures created social changes such as: movement into so-called "temporary homes," changes in diets, disruption in religious and ancestral traditions and disruptions in traditional knowledge. We also found that the history of radiation exposures tended to be kept secret between generations in families. Ultimately we found that radiation exposures caused social and cultural disruptions for individuals, families and communities even when there was little radiation related illness.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Nuclear Conquistadors : Military Colonialism in Nuclear Test Site Selection during the Cold War (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Journal Title: Asian Journal of Peace-building Volume: Vol.1, Issue2 Pages: 157-177
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Hibakusha : Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Beyond (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Journal Title: Peace Now : Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear War Volume: Special Issue Pages: 16-18
• [Presentation] "Radiation and Social Cohesion : From Three Mile Island to Today" presented to "The Three-Mile Island Nuclear Crisis in Perspective : Analyses, Stories, Policies" (2014)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: Conference at Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg
  • Place of Presentation: Harrisburg, PA, USA
  • Year and Date: 2014-03-28
• [Presentation] The Impact of the Bikini H-Bomb Test on US Popular Culture (2014)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented during the Hiroshima Peace Institute Fifteenth Lecture Series for the Citizens of Hiroshima
  • Place of Presentation: Hiroshima, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2014-03-14
• [Presentation] The Global Hibakusha Project (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented to the Transnational Nuclear Perspectives Colloquium at the 24th International Congress of History of Science
  • Place of Presentation: Technology and Medicine at Manchester, United Kingdom
  • Year and Date: 20130700
• [Presentation] Nuclear Culture : How it Shaped the United States in the Early Cold War (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented at Seoul National University
  • Place of Presentation: Seoul, South Korea
  • Year and Date: 2013-09-03
• [Presentation] The History and Effects of Nuclear Weapon Testing on Communities Near to Nuclear Test and Nuclear Weapon Production Sites Around the World (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented at the International Catalan Institute for Peace
  • Place of Presentation: Barcelona, Spain
  • Year and Date: 2013-07-11
• [Presentation] The Inheritance of Trauma : Radiation Exposed Communities Around the World (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented at Temple University of Japan
  • Place of Presentation: Tokyo, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2013-07-02
• [Presentation] American Nuclear Discourse : Narratives and Counter-narratives (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented to Glocal Studies Institute at Seijo University
  • Place of Presentation: Tokyo, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2013-06-29
• [Presentation] Understanding the Bomb in the US, 1945-46 : Nuclear Weapons Create a New World (2013)
  • Author(s): Robert Jacobs
  • Organizer: presented to the inaugural Hiroshima Peace Institute Nuclear Studies Working Group
  • Place of Presentation: Hiroshima, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2013-06-27
• [Book] "Fukushima and the Shifting Conventions of Documentary-from Mainstream Broadcast to Social Media Netizenship", Defining Independent Documentaries? Case Studies in the Post-1990 Context (2014)
  • Author(s): Mick Broderick, in, Judith Pernin and Camille Deprez, eds
  • Publisher: Edinburgh : University of Edinburgh Press
• [Book] "Domesticating Hiroshima : American Depictions of the Victims of the Hiroshima Bombings in the Early Cold War" Images of Rupture in Civilization Between East and West: The Iconography of Auschwitz and Hiroshima in Eastern European Arts and Media (2013)
  • Author(s): Urs Heftrich, Bettina Kaibach, Robert Jacobs and Karoline Thaidigsmann, eds