Report of the British Mission to Japan
Foreword
UNTIL AUGUST, 1945, the attacks delivered from the air by the allied and associated powers on enemy countries had been of increasing intensity, but the effects from blast or fire were such that the damage from a known weight of attack could be predicted with some degree of accuracy from past experience. In the early days of August the United States Air Force attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a new weapon. One atomic bomb was dropped over each city. The destructive effects in each case were on a scale which far exceeded that of previous air raids. New phenomena accompanied this form of attack and the whole problem of counter measures and civil defence generally required reconsideration.
IN THE COURSE OF THE WAR the Research and Experiments Department of the Ministry of Home Security had evolved a scientific method for the measurement of the effect of air attack in the various forms and the Home Office, as the successors of the Ministry of Home Security, as well as the Service Departments, regarded it as desirable to invite the United States Authorities to agree that a British team of experts trained in that method should co-operate with the United States Strategic Bombing Survey to conduct an investigation into the effects of the bombing of the two Japanese cities.
THE UNITED STATES AUTHORITIES provided every possible facility for the investigation, and the detailed arrangements were made by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. In addition to factual examinations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States Authorities placed at the disposal of the British experts the records and observations which their more prolonged and detailed study had produced. In particular the part of this report which deals with the effects of atomic bombs on the human structure is based on material supplied by the Medical Section of the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb.
BY AGREEMENT with the United States Authorities this report by the British experts is now published in this country simultaneously with the publication in America of the corresponding report of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey.
HIS MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT considers that a full understanding of the consequences of the new form of attack may assist the United Nations Organisation in its task of securing the control of atomic energy for the common good and in abolishing the use of weapons of mass destruction.
The Members of the British Mission to Japan, who were under the direction of the Chiefs of Staff, were:—
HOME OFFICE
Professor W. N . Thomas, M.A., D.PhiL, M.Inst.C.E., F.R.I.B.A.
Dr. J. Bronowski, M.A., Ph.D.
D. C. Bum, M.A., M.Inst.C.E., A.M.I.Mech.E.
J. B. Hawker, A.R.I.B.A.
H. Elder, L.R.I.B.A.
P. A. Badland, B.Sc, A.M.Inst.C.E., A.M.I.Struct.E. R. W. Sevan, B.Sc.
F. H . Pavry, B.Sc, A.M.Inst.C.E.
F. Walley. B.Sc, A.M.Inst.C.E.
O. C. Young, B.Sc, A.M.Inst.C.E.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Dr. S. Parthasarathy, D.Sc, F.Inst.P., F.RJ.C
ADMIRALTY (DNOR)
Lieut.-Conimander A. D . Evans, B.A. (R.N.V.R.)
WAR OFFICE (SA/AC)
Colonel O. M. Solandt, M.D., M.R.C.P. (Canadian Army)
AIR MINISTRY (AIR STAFF)
Group Captain A. E. Dark, C.B.E.
Squadron Leader R. G. Whitehead, D.F.C.. B.A.
MINISTRY OF AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION
Group Captain F. G. S. Mitchell, O.B.E.