Crewman of irradiated trawler hopes Bikini Atoll blast never forgotten

TOKYO, Feb. 26 Kyodo -
A former crewman of a Japanese trawler exposed to radiation from an American hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean in 1954 expressed his hope Saturday that people will never forget the incident or the horrors of nuclear weapons.
''Of the 23 crew members, 14 have passed away. I also have cancer and have to take more than 30 different medicines per day to continue living,'' said Matashichi Oishi, who was aboard the Fukuryu Maru No. 5, or Lucky Dragon No. 5, that was irradiated on March 1, 1954.
The 77-year-old spoke at an event held near an exhibition hall in Tokyo where the Lucky Dragon is displayed, ahead of the 57th anniversary of the Bikini incident Tuesday.
''I speak of my accounts not as part of a peace movement but out of bitterness over something irrational,'' Oishi said. ''Today we can communicate instantly with people on the other side of the globe via the Internet. I hope that children will discuss with people around the world about ways to abolish nuclear weapons.''
Hiromitsu Toyosaki, a photojournalist who takes photos of nuclear-related damage around the world, said at the same event that the effects of widespread radioactive fallout from a series of nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll on human health have not been investigated.
A declassified U.S. document showed that the fallout from the nuclear tests covered an extensive area, including the mainland United States, Latin America and Japan.
Bikini Atoll was designated as a World Heritage site by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization last year.
The Fukuryu Maru was fishing for tuna about 160 kilometers east of Bikini Atoll when the United States tested the bomb, codenamed ''Bravo,'' which was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb it dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
Aikichi Kuboyama, the ship's chief radio operator died six months after the blast at the age of 40 and became a symbol of the 1954 incident.