“H-Bomb Tests Have Hurt U.S. Japanese Relations”

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27406, 20 July 1954, Page 11

“H-Bomb Tests Have Hurt U.S. Japanese Relations”

1-30 p.m.) LONDON, July 19 . latest series in the United States ■ hydrogen bomb tests at Bikini in the : South Pacific iave done more damage ® understanding between Japan and ( West than anything since Hiroshima. according to the Tokyo correspondent of “The Times.” . - He says that four months after the , it is clear that their effect on Japanese public opinion and on relations has been levere, /The aftermath of these events has extended far beyond the 23 fisher°f the Fukuryu Maru who, wan- ? &r j n 6 within range of th* 1 Bikini and becoming subject to the phyeffects of radioactivity, are still gained in hospital for observationmen, who were never on the list, have become symbols of a “i^ wide anx iety- , . . , a the first panic has abated. Lu® neurosis persists about the death’ which are held to have •■HJnded the lives and livelihood of 87-000.000 inhabitants. The im£7®“°° is that, somehow, the Japanbeing used as guinea pigs for v?. development of dread weapons. 33 - v the Communists have been j* v e m fostering this view* but the is that many unpolitically-minded feel the same way. Ul® months the Japanese press has °t news items and comments Blatters as the alleged pollution jrJ® bagh seas, including a black cursweeps from the South - to toe shores of Japan; the of all shipping venturthe danger zone even after were over: the risk of eating aS °ther fish caught anywhere JS*J"tai which has led to the de.of large catches: the so- > Tall out’ of ash from the excarried by winds over the of Japan: the supposed danger tain? ra3n water which may conelements: and even a reduction in the migrant Population which is said to m the affected area. last is a case in point showing nr ar to hysteria the whole affair Some Japanese scientists—many—have sought to preserve n/Zz*?® °f Proportion and have deUizit toe phobia which is sweepioLJrTfWtry. But the public, folta»J£toe lead of the newspapers, is *W*»ured. so much a question of senm as a state of mind, a psychosis arising from the atomic bomb attacks.

“In brief, the Japanese public is hypersensitive about the far-reaching and long-lasting effects of such ex? plosions. It tends to think that the fishing industry, on which the national economy depends, is permanently threatened by American experiments in the Pacific. . “As the thing stands now, it is difficult to convince the Japanese that the Western world, particularly the United States, is not callous in its attitude towards them. The damage has been done and cannot easily be undone.’

PROBLEMS OF OLD AGE Effect Of Longer Life Span LONDON, July 18. Scientists believe that there are “excellent medical possibilities” that the normal span of life of everybody will soon be 100 years, says the Daily But doctors are asking what is the good of prolonging life if oln people are going to letad unhappy, useless, and lonely existences The “Daily Mail" quotes Dr. J. H Sheldon, British president-elect of the International Association of Gerontology (the study of long life). ‘■There are now more old people than there are in the middle-aged group that has to support them. The “Daily Mail says that n fxt week 600 experts from all oyer the world will meet in London to discuss gerontology and its sociological probis particularly interested ip the problem, Decause s h« has a greyer percentage of old people than any where else in the world, says the “Tiailv Mail” “Sixty years ago boys rbrld exnect to live to 44 years and 4§. By 1951 the life expectancy had gone up to 66 for the boys and 71 for girts Sow, a man who is 60 can exnect to live for another 15 years. H. E. Tunbridge, of Leeds T T nivprsitv who is chairman of the gerontology conference organising committee, said yesterday that bore ic thp real killer of old people. More women than men reached a very old age almost certainly because the stiU those without interests, he said.