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Frequently Asked Questions |
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How many persons perished in or
survived the atomic bombings? |
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Deaths caused by the atomic bombings
include those that occurred on the days of the bombings resulting
from the collapse of houses caused by the blast and from burns due
to heat rays and fires as well as deaths that occurred later from
burns and radiation exposure. However, the total number of deaths
is not precisely known because records of military personnel in
each city were destroyed; entire families perished, leaving no one
to report the deaths; and forced laborers were present in unknown
numbers. Recent estimates of total deaths occurring within two to
four months after the bombings are shown in the Table 1.
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| Table 1. Estimated population size and number
of acute (within two to four months) deaths in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki after the atomic bombings |
City |
Estimated
city population
at the time of the bombings
|
Estimated
number of
acute deaths |
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Hiroshima
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310,000
persons
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90,000−140,000
persons |
Nagasaki |
250,000 persons |
60,000−80,000 persons |
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Five years after the atomic bombings, in the
1950 Japanese national census, approximately 280,000 persons indicated
that they "had been exposed" in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. (Although
most of them were probably exposed in the former administrative
districts of the cities, the census did not require recording the
place of exposure.) The census total is a rough estimate of the
number of people who were exposed and survived the bombings. |
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