If that’s not the perfect article for NPR, I don’t know what is.
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5 Responses to “If You Are Hit By Two Atomic Bombs, Should You Have Kids?”
Nah, NPR won’t run it because Yamaguchi lived to the age of 93 and his wife lived to the age of 88. Worse yet (from NPR’s perspective): “after almost 70 years, there is no evidence of lasting DNA damage into the children of atomic bomb victims…. no subsequent epidemic of birth defects, no high incidence of cancers. No large scale studies … ‘have ever found significant evidence that these children had higher rates of any disease, or even higher rates of mutations. … In the vast majority of cases, genetic fallout didn’t settle onto the succeeding generation.'” Why, that’s tantamount to an endorsement of the use of A-bombs to end the war with Japan. Can’t have that on NPR.
Reminds me of the story of Violet Jessop, who was on the RMS Titanic (sunk 1912) and the HMHS Britannic (sunk 1916). Before that she was on the RMS Olympic, which collided with another ship in 1911.
Hard to say if she had really, really bad luck or really, really good luck.
I worked with a guy who was taken prisoner shortly after Pearl Harbor. As he was being transferred from a POW camp back to the Americans, he went through Nagasaki. He and the other prisoners had heard of the fire bombing of Dresden, so they assumed that’s what happened to Nagasaki. As far as they could tell, none of the Japanese around them heard a word about atomic bombs. He said it was a black burned out mess.
I met one of the pilots on the plane that bombed Nagasaki at a gun show a few years back. It was interesting to hear him talk about the experience. While we talked, one after another old veterans came by to shake his hand and thank him. “I was on Iwo Jima and I was sure that I would never make it home if we had to invade the mainland.” “I was on Guadalcanal….” etc.
Lost in frequent arguments over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that the United States and the Soviet Union were sufficiently impressed by the devastation created by these relatively small bombs that they managed to avoid blowing up any other cities for nearly 70 years.
I shouldn’t be surprised that the writer didn’t do a lot of research on radiation before writing the story. Sperm don’t live particularly long and men regenerate them constantly. After about 6 months, the irradiated sperm are all gone. A more serious issue is the effect of radiation on women, as their eggs are only generated once.
If you survive not one, but two atomic explosions, it almost seems to me that you’ve received either incredible luck or divine intervention. Either way you should try to…pass it on.
July 21st, 2012 at 21:05
Who knows? Maybe his kids are the next step in evolution.
July 21st, 2012 at 21:09
Nah, NPR won’t run it because Yamaguchi lived to the age of 93 and his wife lived to the age of 88. Worse yet (from NPR’s perspective): “after almost 70 years, there is no evidence of lasting DNA damage into the children of atomic bomb victims…. no subsequent epidemic of birth defects, no high incidence of cancers. No large scale studies … ‘have ever found significant evidence that these children had higher rates of any disease, or even higher rates of mutations. … In the vast majority of cases, genetic fallout didn’t settle onto the succeeding generation.'” Why, that’s tantamount to an endorsement of the use of A-bombs to end the war with Japan. Can’t have that on NPR.
July 21st, 2012 at 23:10
Reminds me of the story of Violet Jessop, who was on the RMS Titanic (sunk 1912) and the HMHS Britannic (sunk 1916). Before that she was on the RMS Olympic, which collided with another ship in 1911.
Hard to say if she had really, really bad luck or really, really good luck.
I worked with a guy who was taken prisoner shortly after Pearl Harbor. As he was being transferred from a POW camp back to the Americans, he went through Nagasaki. He and the other prisoners had heard of the fire bombing of Dresden, so they assumed that’s what happened to Nagasaki. As far as they could tell, none of the Japanese around them heard a word about atomic bombs. He said it was a black burned out mess.
I met one of the pilots on the plane that bombed Nagasaki at a gun show a few years back. It was interesting to hear him talk about the experience. While we talked, one after another old veterans came by to shake his hand and thank him. “I was on Iwo Jima and I was sure that I would never make it home if we had to invade the mainland.” “I was on Guadalcanal….” etc.
Lost in frequent arguments over Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that the United States and the Soviet Union were sufficiently impressed by the devastation created by these relatively small bombs that they managed to avoid blowing up any other cities for nearly 70 years.
July 21st, 2012 at 23:14
I shouldn’t be surprised that the writer didn’t do a lot of research on radiation before writing the story. Sperm don’t live particularly long and men regenerate them constantly. After about 6 months, the irradiated sperm are all gone. A more serious issue is the effect of radiation on women, as their eggs are only generated once.
July 21st, 2012 at 23:37
If you survive not one, but two atomic explosions, it almost seems to me that you’ve received either incredible luck or divine intervention. Either way you should try to…pass it on.