"Hibakusha"  (被曝者) is the term the Japanese use for people who survived the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Instead of victimizing them, the term „Hibakusha“ denotes them as survivors. They are the living reminders of the horror that mankind is able to inflict upon itself. And many of them have taken on the responsibility to tell their stories and to fight for a better world – a world in which such a catastrophe as the one they witnessed will never be allowed to occur again.

In order to include the victims of nuclear weapons testing, like the downwinders from Nevada, USA or Semipalatinsk, Russia, the term „Hibakusha“ was soon „globalized“. Hibakusha from Japan have been active in reaching out to Hibakusha from the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Russia, the US and French Polynesia, inviting them to their conferences and including them in their call „No more Hibakushas!“

After the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in March of 2011, the term „Hibakusha“ took on quite a new meaning for many people. And it dawned on many that nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are really only two sides of the same coin:

• Both require uranium. The mining of uranium has in itself created „Hibakusha“, as miners, local populations and downwinders of uranium mines suffer from the effects of radioactive contamination and have joined a global fight to keep the uranium underground.

• Both require uranium enrichment. Every country that has a military nuclear program first had to start with a civil nuclear program in order to create eapon-grade fissile material. At the same time, every country that has a civil nuclear program is able to develop nuclear weapons. The step is not too big once a uranium industry and a civil nuclear infrastructure exists.

• Both pose proliferation risks, as plutonium, uranium and MOX-fuel are shipped around the globe to power nuclear reactors, but could just as well be used for dirty bombs or nuclear warheads.

• Both can severely harm the environment and people's health. An accident in a nuclear power plant, a plutonium factory or a reprocessing plant can release massive amounts of radioactivity, contaminate air, soils and water and cause helth effects for many generations.

• Both ultimately end up creating more and more radioactive waste – waste that needs to be safely deposited and guarded for hundreds of thousands of years.

The exhibition „Hibakusha Worldwide“ aims to show the connections between the different links of the nuclear chain: uranium mining, enrichment, civil nuclear accidents, reprocessing, nuclear weapons testing, military nuclear accidents, nuclear bombings and nuclear waste. The posters can be read one after the other in order to get „the big picture“ or they can be seen as a resource library and used as a basis for further research or activity.The exhibition will first be displayed at the 20th World Congress of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Hiroshima, Japan in August 2012. Until that time it will only exist in its current online form, which is liable to change as improvements are still being made to it. If you have suggestions for changes, please contact alexrosen (at) gmx.net.
 

Acknowlegdements

This exhibition was created in 2011 and 2012 by an international network of doctors and medical students, activists and experts of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War:

		Ahmed Saada is a young doctor from Mansourah, Egypt, member of the IPPNW Board of Directors and the Middle East Regional Vice President of IPPNW. He researched the poster on the French nuclear weapons test site Reggane, Algeria.
		Cesar Aleman is a medical student from Managua, Nicaragua and contributed the poster on the radiactive accident at Goiânia, Brazil
		Vilena Avaliani is a psychiatrist from St. Petersburg, Russia, who contributed to the poster on the Soviet nuclear weapons tests on Novaya Zemlya, Russia
		Elena Bezsmertna is a dental intern from Donetsk, Ukraine and researched the poster on the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine
		Katsuko Kataoka from Hiroshima, Japan is Professor Emeritus for Histologyand Cell Biology at Hiroshima University and the Secretary General of the Japanese Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (JPPNW). She contributed the poster on the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan
		Tova Fuller is a young doctor from Los Angeles, USA who contributed the posters on uranium mining at the Spokane Reservation, USA and the nuclear accident at the Sequoyah nuclear facility, USA
		Bill Williams is a General Practitioner from Melbourne, Australia, Board Member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Australia and President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War, Australia. He contributed the poster on the uranium mine at Radium Hill, Australia
		Ulrike Ackert is a pediatrician from Berlin, Germany, who contributed the poster on the nuclear facility in Hanford, USA
		Dale Dewar is a medical doctor and the Executive Director of Physicians for Global Survival from Wynyard, Canada. She contributed the posters on uranium mining in North Saskatchewan, Canada and Elliot Lake, Canada
		Soumya Shree is a medical student from Pune, India and contributed to the poster on uranium mining in Jadugoda, India.
		Anna Christina Kothe is a medical intern from Cologne, Germany who contributed the poster on the US nuclear weapons tests at Alamogordo, USA
		Susanne Mudra is a young doctor working in Hamburg, Germany. She contributed to the exhibition by resarching the poster on the nuclear accident at Tōkai-mura, Japan
		Alix Schou is a medical student from Copenhagen, Denmark and current European Student Representative of IPPNW. She researched the accident of the US nuclear armed plane at Thule, Greenland.
		Suheir Khajuria is a young doctor from India now working in the US and contributed to the posters on the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, USA, the nuclear bombings in Nagasaki, Japan and Hiroshima, Japan and the uranium mine on the Spokane Reservation."
		Tatiana Mitova is a medical student from Düsseldorf, Germany who contributed to the poster on the nuclear accident in Tomsk, Russia
........		Ehase Agyeno is an aspiring cardiologist from Jos, Nigeria and contributed to this exhibition by researching the posters on the French nuclear weapons test site In Ekker, Algeria and the Uranium mining site in Akokan and Arlit, Niger.
		Ogebe Onazi is a medical intern from Makurdi, Nigeria and is a member of the IPPNW Board of Directors as International Student Representative. He contributed the posters on uranium minig at Rössing, Namibia, Witwatersrand, South Africa and Mounana, Gabon.
		John Loretz is IPPNW's Program Director from Boston, USA and contributed the posters on uranium mining in Shiprock / Tsé Bitʼaʼí and Churchrock / Kinłitsosinil, USA.
		Beverly Ho is a young doctor from Manila, Philippines and has done the research on the French nuclear weapons tests at Fangataufa and Mururoa, French Polynesia as well as the US nuclear weapons tests at Kiritimati, Kiribati.
		Katharia Schröder is a young doctor from Gießen, Germany and contributed the poster on uranium mining in Têwo / Diebu, China
		Anna-Polina Shurygina is a young labratory doctor from St. Petersburg, Russia and compiled the information for the poster on the Mayak Production Association, Russia.
		Michael Christ is IPPNW's Executive Director from Boston, USA and contributed the poster on the Soviet nuclear weapon tests at Semipalatinsk, Russia
		Alexandra Ritz is a young gynecologist from Freiburg, Germany and contributed to the exhibition by researching the poster on the nuclear facility at La Hague, France.
		Nidia Rodriguez is a young doctor from Quito, Ecuador and contributed the poster on the radioactive accident at Ezeiza, Argentina
		Stephi Rosen from Cologne, Germany holds a degree in Regional Sciences and has done extensive research on the situation of the Lakota tribe in South Dakota, USA. She contributed the poster on uranium mining in the Black Hills / Paha Sapa, USA
		Apil Dev Neupane is a young doctor from Kathmandu, Nepal, who contributed the poster on the Lop Nor nuclear weapons test site, China.
		Saima Naz Akhtar is a medical student from Bergen, Norway and the current Norwegian and European Student Representative. She contributed the poster on the British nuclear facility at Sellafield, UK.
		Tilman Ruff from Melbourne, Australia is an infectious diseases and public health physician, Associate Professor in the Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia, member of the IPPNW Board of Directors and the Southeast Asia / Pacific Regional Vice President of IPPNW.  He contributed to the poster on the British nuclear weapons tests at Maralinga, Australia.
		Arashdeep Singh is a medical intern from Jammu and Kashmir, India and has contributed to this poster exhibition by researching about the uranium mines at Jadugoda, India and Olympic Dam, Australia.
		Shannon Gearhart is a young doctors from New York, USA and contributed the posters on US nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site, USA and the accident of a nuclear armed US plane at Palomares, Spain
		Dmitry Boychenko is a gastroenterologist from St. Petersburg, Russia, who contributed to the poster on the Soviet nuclear weapons tests on Nevaya Zemlya, Russia
		Sophie Gascoigne-Cohen is a young doctor from Melbourne, Australia and contributed the poster on the British nuclear weapons tests at Maralinga, Australia
		André Michel is a young psychiatrist from Geneva, Switzerland and researched the poster on the US nuclear weapons test site at Amchitka, USA
		Alex Rosen is a pediatrician from Düsseldorf, Germany and researched the posters on uranium mining at Ranger Mine, Australia, Jáchymov, Czech Republic, the Erzgebirge, Germany and Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan, as well as the British nuclear weapons test site at Emu Field, Australia, the nuclear submarine accident at Chazhma Bay, Russia, the multiple nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, Japan and the Depleted Uranium battlefields at Fallujah, Iraq and Basra, Iraq.
		Finally, we would like to thank the support of the staff of the IPPNW Central Office in Boston and the continuous input of Dr. Katsuko Kataoka on the title of this exhibition.