Comparative Research Focused on Establishing International Cooperation between Hibakusha Communities

人们以多种方式暴露在辐射中。我们已经知道了很多关于辐射暴露对人类的医学影响，但这项研究是第一个跨越文化界限解释辐射暴露的社会和文化影响。我们在世界各地的辐射照射场所工作，收集了许多与电离辐射受害者的口述历史访谈，有时还采访了他们的家人，我们发现辐射照射造成了社会变化，例如：迁入所谓的“临时住所”、饮食改变、宗教和祖先传统中断以及传统知识中断。我们还发现，在家庭中，辐射暴露的历史往往在几代人之间保密。最终，我们发现，即使在几乎没有与辐射有关的疾病的情况下，辐射照射也会对个人、家庭和社区造成社会和文化破坏。

People are exposed to radiation in many different ways. We already knew a great deal about the medical effects of radiation exposures to human beings, but this study is the first that exained the social and cultural effects of radiation exposures across cultural boundaries. Working at sites of radiation exposure arount the world we gathered numerous oral history interviews with people expoed to ionizing radiation and also sometimes interviewed their family members.We found that radiation exposures created social changes such as: movement into so-called "temporary homes," changes in diets, disruption in religious and ancestral traditions and disruptions in traditional knowledge. We also found that the history of radiation exposures tended to be kept secret between generations in families. Ultimately we found that radiation exposures caused social and cultural disruptions for individuals, families and communities even when there was little radiation related illness.