/jp/ - Otaku Culture

A Japanese fishing boat, Lucky Dragon No. 5, also came into contact with the fallout which caused many of the crew to grow ill; one eventually died. This resulted in an international uproar and reignited Japanese concerns about radiation, especially in regard that Japanese citizens were once more affected by U.S. nuclear weapons. The official U.S. line had been that the growth in the strength of atomic bombs was not accompanied by an equivalent growth in radiation released. Japanese scientists who had collected data from the fishing vessel disagreed with this. Sir Joseph Rotblat, working at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, demonstrated that the contamination caused by the fallout from the test was far greater than that stated officially. Rotblat was able to deduce that the bomb had three stages and showed that the fission phase at the end of the explosion increased the amount of radioactivity a thousandfold. Rotblat's paper was taken up by the media, and the outcry in Japan reached such a level that diplomatic relations became strained and the incident was even dubbed by some as "a second Hiroshima".[4] Nevertheless, the Japanese and U.S. governments quickly reached a political settlement which gave the fishery a compensation of 2 million dollars with the surviving victims receiving about ¥ 2 million each (US$ 5,550 in 1954, US$ 45096.34 in 2009[5]).[6] It was also agreed that the victims would not be given Hibakusha status.