What the Survivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima Have Taught Us About the Danger of Excessive Fear of Radiation

Michiko was 11 when the sky flashed a strange blinding white. It was 11:02 a.m., August 9, 1945. Moments later came the roaring sound and the heat and the powerful blast of wind, and then in the distance several kilometers away the young Japanese girl saw from her suburban home the fires and smoke and debris and flat scorched earth where moments ago the city of Nagasaki had stood. Michiko (not her real name) ran to her father, a doctor, who ran toward the destruction, to help. Michiko went with ...