TOKYO
, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Declassified U.S. documents have shown that Tokyo and Washington covered up medical tests on Japanese fishermen exposed to U.S. hydrogen bomb testing.
Abnormalities were found in the reproductive functions of fishermen who had been exposed to the hydrogen bomb test March 1, 1954 on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands southwest of Hawaii.
However, the fishermen themselves were not informed of the abnormalities, Kyodo News reported Monday.
The documents were dated Dec. 27
, 1954 and sent from the U.S. Embassy in Japan. They showed that abnormalities such as a temporary fall in sperm count were detected in 18 of the 23 crew members on the ship Fukuryu Maru No. 5.
A U.S. Embassy memorandum said three doctors from a Tokyo hospital had approached the embassy in September 1954
, requesting that the important medical findings be classified, and the United States had agreed to do so. The doctors were not identified.Related Topics Articles: