by Isao Moriyama
Secretariat, 1948-84

I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of ABCC-RERF studies. It was once predicted that the research program of ABCC would last for only about 10 years, but it has received worldwide recognition and continued for four decades.

What comes to mind first of all as I look back upon the past 40 years is the situation when the country was under the administration of the Occupation Forces and our staff consisted of only a few inexperienced employees. I would like to express my respect to Mr. Tomio Nitta (retired in June 1977) for the efforts he made as the overall responsible person for administrative affairs, and who without so much as a manual to help him, coped with the scheduling for research studies and took it upon himself to provide leadership and guidance in the patient contacting work.

As a member of the ABCC staff, I spent my youth, adulthood and maturity and reached the age of mandatory retirement. I am now enjoying my sunset years, and many memories of adversities, distress and happiness come and go in my mind. As I cannot recount my days at ABCC in an orderly way, it may be difficult for a generation growing up in times of peace and affluence to understand. I would like to focus on the activities I was engaged in between 1948 and 1949.

Applicants for employment were interviewed by Dr. Snell (Dr. Ishibashi acted as interpreter) at ABCC within the Kure Kyosai Hospital in November 1947 and three persons (Kimie Fujimoto, Noboru Yamamoto and myself) were employed as contactors on 5 January 1948 after completing procedures at the Occupation Forces Labor Management Office in Kaita-machi, Aki-gun. Yamamoto and I started working on the 14th. The first English word I learned was “patient”—the persons we were to visit as “contactors.” In a room of the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital which had only one electric stove for heating, Mr. Nitta instructed us on the purpose and contents of ABCC’s work and on how to request the cooperation of designated patients and how to pick them up for examination. From the next day, four of us actually made the rounds of homes of A-bomb survivors residing in Hiroshima City in a jeep. When we visited the homes of A-bomb survivors, being from an institute run by the US that dropped the A-bomb, we had to listen to a lengthy discourse on their experiences at the time of A-bombing and how they were treated as “guinea pigs,” just having blood drawn and being provided no treatment. As a result, we experienced every day almost purposeful absence or refusal on their part when we went their houses to pick them up.

This work was done on Mondays, Wednesdays (half day) and Fridays in Hiroshima. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (half day), we visited schools, pubic offices and places of business in Kure according to a list of persons of the same ages as those contacted in Hiroshima, but, no matter how much we explained, the refusal rate there exceeded the rate in Hiroshima.The staff members themselves used to serve as study subjects when the required number could not be obtained despite our efforts.

A three-quarter-ton truck was used for transportation between Hiroshima and Kure. I used to think the drivers “neat” who sped along the Kure-Hiroshima road just like Occupation Forces drivers and sometimes raced with a train. About March the same year, half-day duty twice a week was discontinued and revised to the system of having two rest days a week, on Saturday and Sunday, and this system has continued to the present time.

Just about that time, with the increase in the number of study subjects and the gradual increase of facilities and personnel, there was talk of moving the laboratory to the vacant Asano Library building located next to the present Bank of Japan in Fukuro-machi, but it seemed that the former Gaisenkan building in Ujina was decided on after consideration of various circumstances. About that time, preparations apparently were underway at JNIH for the institute to participate in the ABCC research program, which was realized as of 31 March the same year, and some of the women employees had their status changed to that of personnel of the Health and Welfare Ministry. This did not materialize for us, reportedly for lack of funds in the national budget.

In April the same year, Mr. Makoto Iwashita arrived from the United States as the overall responsible person for administrative affairs. A plan had apparently been formulated to make the operation of ABCC independent, because personnel and labor administration became independent of the Occupation Forces Labor Management Office. I was released from the duties of a contactor to assist in Mr. Nitta’s work to establish the personnel and labor administration system, and as his assistant I made the rounds of the public offices concerned, such as the Prefectural Government, City Hall, Tax Office and Labor Standards Inspection Office, to make the necessary procedures. The rationing system was then at its zenith. Special rations were allotted to employees at ABCC also, and sometimes I even spent a whole day in rationing rice, barley and other foods. One day I became covered with flour weighing and distributing rations of flour.

Meanwhile, people in the street, seeing ABCC employing new people almost every day and expanding, would say that the star of ABCC was on the rise. A new building , motor pool, repair shop and animal room were built next to the Gaisenkan building at the Hiroshima laboratory, and offices were established at several places in the city. A new laboratory was also built in Kure, and houses were rented for foreign staff members at several places in Kure City. ABCC’s whole operation finally became independent in August the same year.

While the contents of research were remarkable, the personnel and labor administration system of the Commission was a unique one modeled for the most part after the American system. Rules of employment, albeit simple, were also established. Working hours were from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM and lunch time from 12:00 noon to12:45 PM. The US holiday system was employed and Japanese holidays were virtually ignored. Only December 31 and January 1 were the year-end/New Year holidays. Employees were entitled to two days of paid leave a month. Since unused paid leave was calculated and included in the salary, many employees chose not to use their paid leave. The Commission was unique in that the employees were prohibited from eating their lunch in their offices and there were separate dining rooms for the Japanese staff and the foreign staff. One view had it that it was a particularly the smell of “takuwan (yellow pickled radish)” brought by the Japanese staff in their bentou (lunch) that was the reason for having separate dining rooms.

Differing from the usual personnel and labor practice in Japan, one was expected to come to work the day after one’s employment was decided, and when some inconvenience prevented this, the person was fired immediately with one month’s advance allowance. In a way, the system was unfeeling. The instability of their employment status, unthinkable in terms of the general practice, was talked about in undertone among the staff. The pay level was rather high and a complete pay-for-job system was adopted, regardless of education and experience, but employees in positions requiring a license or qualification were well paid. Salary consisted only of base pay. No allowances, let alone seasonal allowances, was paid. The system of monthly payment of accumulated wages for the days worked was employed, with the last day of each month as the cut-off date and payment on the 10th of the following month. Traditionally in Japan, salary could be paid to a proxy if he/she has the seal. However, at ABCC, an employee had to be identified as being the person himself/herself before receiving the pay envelop, and was asked to count the cash on the spot and sign the pay voucher in English. There was an episode of some employee practicing writing his own name in Romaji for a few days to be able to do this. I think the employees of those days had a hard time. Whenever an employee happened to be on sick leave on pay day, a person from the Payroll Unit personally visited the home of the employee to pay his salary because a proxy was not allowed to receive it for him.

All equipment was brought in from the United States. The only piece of Japanese-made office equipment was the abacus. However, calculations made with it were given little credence and were accepted only when they agreed with the figures on calculator tapes. In retrospect, those were nonsensical days. Computers make the world go round now. ABCC already had a few computer staff members in those days, and this fact alone is enough to show how advanced it was.

With the substantiation of the Hiroshima facilities, plans were carried forward to establish research facilities in Nagasaki also. At first, a part of the temporary school building of the Nagasaki University Medical School on the grounds of the Kozen-machi Elementary School was rented. There were probably some ten-odd ABCC employees then. Mr. Iwashita was there from Hiroshima to provide guidance in personnel and labor administration matters. I also accompanied him when it was time to calculate and pay salaries in Nagasaki. At first, while the cut-off date for salary computation was the last day of each month and the pay day was the 10th of the following month in Hiroshima, salary was computed from the 16th to the 15th of the following month in Nagasaki. I went to Nagasaki every month until December the same year. In January 1949, the payment system was changed to follow the system in Hiroshima. One day there was a serious accident; one employee in Nagasaki received her salary in the morning and lost it (still in the envelop) on the way to the city in a jeep with her friends for lunch. Fortunately or not, she was from a wealth family and the matter was somehow brought to a settlement.

On the 25th of December 1948, a Christmas party was held for the first time, and the foreign staff members kindly chipped in and give us presents. I cannot forget how ashamed I felt of the demeaning attitude shown by the destitute Japanese then. How good the chocolates, Lucky Strike cigarettes and American-made cakes tasted probably cannot be appreciated by anyone who was not alive when sugar and tobacco were rationed.

There was a distressing incident; the lodging for the NIH staff near ABCC was totally destroyed by fire around March in 1949.

ABCC was developing day by day, but I think it was one step behind in the area of Japanese social security. The need for such a social security system was recognized in the spring of 1949. The opinions of the employees were collected by questionnaire, and voluntary subscription to health insurance and unemployment insurance was realized. Family allowances and commuting allowances were also introduced after much difficulty. Thus, the Japanese form of administration was approached little by little. Consensus of opinion could not be reached with regard to welfare annuity, however, and it was not until September 1952 that it was finally introduced. Thinking about it now, the delay is regrettable.

As the number of employees increased, various amusements were held in out free time to promote mutual friendship. I cannot forget the enjoyable times we had holding softball tournaments, athletic meets and masquerade parades. About this time, the long, round-roofed buildings of the new laboratory were under construction atop Hijiyama by the Takenaka Komuten Construction Co., and their progress was regarded with much expectation by the employees from their respective standpoints.

The above are some of my recollections of the former Ujina research facilities. In conclusion, I with RERF ever increasing prosperity.

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This article was originally published in RERF Newsletter 14 (40th anniversary special issue):43-45, 1988.