ABSTRACT
In March 1954, Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon No. 5 was exposed to radioactive fallout from a US thermonuclear test at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. While nuclear tests harmed numerous fishing boats, people in the Marshall Islands, and US military personnel in those days, this “Bikini Incident” was settled in January 1955 by the US and Japanese governments in a manner that sought to downplay their negative effects. Using government documents that were recently declassified at the author’s request, this chapter focuses on the fallout controversies that followed the incident in the United States and Japan, which entailed a fish inspection program and a bilateral conference on radiation’s effects. It explores the connection between radiation damage at the human level and international politics.
