IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB161117781

Let Chromosomes Speak: The Cytogenetics Project at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) (2021)

Hatakeyama, Sumiko (Author)

Journal of the History of Biology
Volume: 54
Issue: 1
Pages: 107-126
Publication date: 2021
Language: English

URI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-021-09628-7

DOI: 10.1007/s10739-021-09628-7

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Public health International cooperation Cytogenetics Chromosomes Health risk assessment Pollution, radioactive Human body Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons Atomic bomb 20th century, late Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission

Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) are “witnesses” of the atomic bombings, not just in a standard sense but also in the instrumental sense. For medical and scientific experts, hibakusha are biological resources of unparalleled scientific value. Over the past seventy years, the hibakusha bodies have narrated what it means to be exposed to radiation. In this paper, I explore studies at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) that examined hibakusha bodies as sites where risk could be read. I focus on a period from the mid-1950s to 1975, during which new methods, practices, and technologies allowed ABCC scientists to investigate chromosomes as a way to study radiation exposure and human risk. By focusing on chromosomal aberrations, ABCC scientists connected their work directly to the emerging infrastructure for radiobiology at the time. ABCC administrators actively sought out such prestige, especially given their relationship with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The shift in approach would also alleviate some public relations problems with which the institution was struggling. Launching a cytogenetics program required some older practices that had assumed American privilege and dominance to be abandoned. Eventually, the decision to let chromosomes speak of radiation exposure brought about fundamental changes in ABCC, which came to symbolize the model for future studies at the organization, especially as ABCC was transitioning to a US-Japan binational organization. More broadly, this case highlights the intricate scientific negotiation of radiation risk where uncertainties necessarily prevail.

...More

Included in

Article Jacob Hamblin; Linda M. Richards (2021) Connecting to the Living History of Radiation Exposure. Journal of the History of Biology (pp. 1-6). unapi

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB161117781

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Thesis Sumiko Hatakeyama; (2022)
Chromosome Stories: How Scientists Tracked Radiation Risk after Hiroshima and Nagasaki (/p/isis/citation/CBB004591242/)

Article María Jesús Santesmases; (2017)
Circulating Biomedical Images: Bodies and Chromosomes in the Post-eugenic era (/p/isis/citation/CBB619818579/)

Article Jonathan Luedee; (2021)
Locating the Boundaries of the Nuclear North: Arctic Biology, Contaminated Caribou, and the Problem of the Threshold (/p/isis/citation/CBB903994495/)

Article María Jesús Santesmases; (2020)
Standard Making in Cytogenetics: the Manufacture, Circulation and Reproduction of Chromosome Images (/p/isis/citation/CBB062529104/)

Chapter Chadarevian, Soraya de; (2013)
Putting Human Genetics on a Solid Basis: Human Chromosome Research, 1950s--1970s (/p/isis/citation/CBB001500058/)

Article Kaori Iida; (2020)
Peaceful Atoms in Japan: Radioisotopes as Shared Technical and Sociopolitical Resources for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and the Japanese Scientific Community in the 1950s (/p/isis/citation/CBB785666732/)

Thesis Jessee, Emory Jerry; (2013)
Radiation Ecologies: Bombs, Bodies, and Environment during the Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing Period, 1942--1965 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001560759/)

Article Hsiu-Yun Wang; (2021)
The making of the ‘useless and pathological’ uterus in Taiwan, 1960s to 1990s (/p/isis/citation/CBB024712740/)

Article Malloy, Sean L.; (2012)
“A Very Pleasant Way to Die”: Radiation Effects and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb against Japan (/p/isis/citation/CBB001200575/)

Book Toshihiro Higuchi; (2020)
Political Fallout: Nuclear Weapons Testing and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis (/p/isis/citation/CBB212919708/)

Article María Jesús Santesmases; (2020)
Women in Early Human Cytogenetics: An Essay on a Gendered History of Chromosome Imaging (/p/isis/citation/CBB057816090/)

Chapter Santesmases, María Jesús; (2013)
Cereals, Chromosomes and Colchicine: Crop Varieties at the Estación Experimental Aula Dei and Human Cytogenetics, 1948--1958 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001500057/)

Article Hogan, Andrew J.; (2014)
The “Morbid Anatomy” of the Human Genome: Tracing the Observational and Representational Approaches of Postwar Genetics and Biomedicine The William Bynum Prize Essay (/p/isis/citation/CBB001422150/)

Article Santesmases, María Jesús; (2014)
The Human Autonomous Karyotype and the Origins of Prenatal Testing: Children, Pregnant Women and Early Down's Syndrome Cytogenetics, Madrid 1962--1975 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001421073/)

Article Young, Ken; (2013)
Special Weapon, Special Relationship: The Atomic Bomb Comes to Britain (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213865/)

Thesis Barker, Crispin Robert Claude; (2008)
From Atom Bomb to the “Genetic Time Bomb”: Telomeres, Aging, and Cancer in the Era of Molecular Biology (/p/isis/citation/CBB001561394/)

Book Szasz, Ferenc Morton; (2012)
Atomic Comics: Cartoonists Confront the Nuclear World (/p/isis/citation/CBB001320924/)

Article Aylen, Jonathan; (2015)
First Waltz: Development and Deployment of Blue Danube, Britain's Post-War Atomic Bomb (/p/isis/citation/CBB001550620/)

Article Barahona, Ana Echeverría; (2015)
Medical Genetics in Mexico: The Origins of Cytogenetics and the Health Care System (/p/isis/citation/CBB001552104/)

Article Boudia, Soraya; (2007)
Global Regulation: Controlling and Accepting Radioactivity Risks (/p/isis/citation/CBB000850042/)