In 1946, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission was established in accordance with a US presidential directive from Harry S. Truman to the US National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council to undertake long-term investigations of the late medical and biological effects of radiation among the atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Initial funding was from the US Atomic Energy Commission and was later supplemented by the US Public Health Service, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute of Heart and Lung Diseases. Formal Japanese participation commenced in 1948 under the auspices of the Japanese National Institute of Health of the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare (currently, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). ABCC was the predecessor of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, which was established in April 1975.