The history of the the atomic-bomb survivor research program can be divided into two eras: the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) period, when the research program was initiated, funded, and managed by the United States (from March 1947 through March 1975), and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) period, when funding and management has been a cooperative endeavor of the governments of Japan and the United States (April 1975 to the present).

November 1946. The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, predecessor of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, began as a survey team that traveled throughout war-devastated Japan in the 406th Medical General Laboratory–three railroad cars that were picked up on schedule and attached to the Allied Limited train. Above from left, Tokyo University Surgery Professor Masao Tsuzuki and American researchers Melvin Block, Austin Brues, and James V. Neel are at work in their mobile laboratory, which also doubled as sleeping quarters. (Photo courtesy of James V. Neel.)