ATOMIC ASH IN PACIFIC

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27302, 19 March 1954, Page 11

ATOMIC ASH IN PACIFIC

Second Vessel Affected (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) TOKYO, March 18. A second Japanese fishing-boat has returned suffering the effects of radio-activity, believed to have been caused by the American atomic explosion at Bikini on March 1, the police announced today. The police said that when the 238ton Shunyo Tearu reached its home port of Misaki, about 30 miles south of Tokyo, yesterday,. Geiger tests showed that it was radio-active. None of the 25 crew members so far showed any signs of radiation burns. The radiation detected was less than in the Fukuryu Maru* the first Japanese fishing-boat to struggle home last on Sunday covered in a pall of “death ashes/’ All 23 of the Fukuryu Maru’s crew suffered radiation burns, and are now in hospital. Misaki police said that the Shunyo Maru was believed to have been in operation 600 miles from Bikini at the time of the atom blast. They thought she must have passed through an equatorial current carrying radio-active ash. The Taiyo Fisheries Company, which owns the Shunyo Maru, says the vessel’s tuna catch was unaffected, and has been unloaded for marketing. The Japanese Maritime Safety T3oard is sending experts to inspect the ship. Inquiries by U.S. The State Department said today that the United States Government was investigating the reports that Japanese fishermen had been injured during the United States atomic tests in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. The department’s statement said the United States was concerned over the reports, and was seeking to determine how “this regrettable accident occurred despite the careful precautions taken.”

The Japanese Government had asked the State Department for information on the circumstances surrounding the injpry of 23 seamen’after the United States nuclear explosion in the Marshall Group on March 1.