ABCC Collections

Taxonomy

Code

Scope note(s)

  • Since 1986, The McGovern Historical Center has solicited and preserved the documents of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. This Collection is comprised of manuscripts and other records donated by former members throughout the United States. There are nearly 200 cubic feet of records. The individual collections offer insight; while the entire collection offers a comprehensive view of the attitudes, goals, and activities of the Commission from the late 1940’s through its evolution into the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. An interesting component of the ABCC Collection are the photographs. These augment the written records and provide their own historical evidence of the research activities, international interest in the ABCC, and the interactions of the personnel.

Source note(s)

  • Local, TMCLMHC
  • TMCLMHC

Display note(s)

Hierarchical terms

ABCC Collections

Equivalent terms

ABCC Collections

Associated terms

22 Authority record results for ABCC Collections

22 results directly related Exclude narrower terms

Sutow, Wataru W. (Wataru Walter), 1912-1981

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80139900
  • Person
  • 1912-1981

Watauru W. Sutow, MD, is known for his work in pediatric oncology and for his pediatric studies with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Sutow was born August 31, 1912 and died December 20, 1981. Sutow was a pioneer in defining and establishing pediatric oncology as a specialty and chemotheraphy as a viable adjunct or alternative to radiotherapy and surgery for the treatment of cancer. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Sutow directed a pediatric research team for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. He later joined the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. As a collaborator with the Brookhaven National Labratory, he conducted extensive research on the effects of radiation fallout on Marshall islanders.

Wataru "Wat" Walter Sutow was born August 31, 1912 in Guadalupe, California in the United States of America to Yasaku and Yoshi Sutow. He father was born in Fukushima, Japan, in 1868 and came to the Unites States in 1905. His mother, also of Fukushima, Japan, was born there in 1878, and migrated to the U.S. in 1911.

Wataru Sutow married Mary H. Korenaga in Guadalupe, California, in early September 1937. Mary was born May 28 1914, in Montrose, California. He attended the Stanford University School of Medicine from 1939-1942. As a result of the U.S. government's policy during World War II calling for imprisonment and revocation of civil rights for people of Japanese descent, Sutow was unable to finish his medical studies for most of the war. His family was forcibly relocated to Salt Lake City. He finally was able to complete his medical degree in 1945 at the age of 33. He earned his MD from the University of Utah College of Medicine.

The Sutows had two daughters while they resided in Salt Lake City, Ollie Ellen on October 3, 1942, and Chiyono Jean on September 14, 1946. Sutow completed his internship at Salt Lake City General Hostpital 1945-1946 and residency in the Departmnet of Pediatrics at the University of Utah 1946-1947. He obtained his license to practice medicine from the State of Utah on July 1, 1946; the State of California on September 24, 1947; and from the State of Texas on December 3, 1945.

Following the decision to use atomic weapons against Japan at the end of World War II in August of 1945, the United States government decided to study the immediate and long-term effects of ionized radiation on humans. Sutow was invited to help organize the pediatric portion of the studies by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Sutows left Salt Lake City in 1947 and were in Japan by 1948. During Sutow's first stint with the ABCC, he served as civilian head of the Pediatric Department. On January 16, 1950 they had their third and last child, a son named Edmund Keith who was born at Osaka General Hospital.

In 1950, the Sutow family returned to the United States. Sutow became a fellow at Stanford University where he worked with Dr. John Anderson. As a result of the Korean War, which began in June 1950, Sutow began serving in the U.S. Army in 1951 with the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He received his officer training in San Antonio and was assigned to the Far East Command. In that position, he again worked with the ABCC in 1953-1954 as Director of Pediatric Research doing the same job he earlier had done as a civilan.

Sutow was drawn to the Texas Medical Center through his working relationship with Dr. H. Grant Taylor, a former director of the ABCC. Taylor was the Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Section of Pediatrics of the University of Texas (UT) M.D. Anderson Hospital (MDAH) in 1954. Taylor recruited Sutow who joined MDAH pediatrics in 1954. Sutow served as assistant and associate pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics until 1969 when he became pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics. He was acting head of the department of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine from 1954-1978. From 1957 on, his association as research collaborator with Brookhaven National Laboratory allowed him to continue and elaborate on his reseawrch on long-term radiation effects including his study of Japanese infants who had experienced in utero exposure to atomic bomb fallout. Aside from the study of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki popultations, he was also involved in the ongoing study of the effects of the exposure of Marshall Islanders to radiation fallout in 1954.

In March 1954, the United States conducted the Castle Bravo shot on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The Bravo shot was the first code name of the first test of a dry fuel hydrogenn bomb detonated in the atomosphere. Due to unexpected weather patterns, the fallout fell on residents of Rongelap and Utirik atolls in the Marshall Islands. Source: Castle Bravo (April 29, 2015); Wikipedia; retrieved April 30, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo.

While at MDAH, Sutow organized inter-institutional groups, such as the Southwest Cancer Chemotheraphy Study Group for which he chaired the Pediatric Division 1957-1969. He chaired the Childhood Solid Tumor Committee from 1969-1976. He was a member of the Pediatric Executive Committee of hte Southwest Oncology Group from 1972-1979. He was a member of hte National Wilms' Tumor Study Committee from 1967 and a member of the Executive Committee, Section of Oncology and Hematology, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1975-1978.

When Sutow joined the MDAH Pediatric Section, it consisted of four beds. In Sutow's obituary, which ran in the December 22, 1981 edition of the Houston Post, Dr. Charles A. LeMaistre, president of the UT System Cancer Center, praised Sutow for innovations in treating cancer. "Popular opinion at that time (1954) was skeptical of hte value of drugs in treating cancer, but ... Sutow's regimens for treatment of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) produced some of the most dramatic results ever achieved in pediatric oncology." LeMaistre said. Dr. Jan van Eys stated in the May-June 1982 edition of "The Cancer Bulletin" that Sutow's legacy was that "pediatric oncology addresses the child with cancer, not the cancer in the child ... [Sutow's] ultimate aim was the cured childen, not the cure ... he gave them complete life, not permanent dependency."

In addition to his research and medical practice, Sutow served as an editor or sat on editorial boards for numerous cancer-related publications. He published more than 250 journal articles, contributed to cancer and pediatric textbooks, and published a cancer reference bibliography, a textbook and a book on malignant solid tumor of children.

He was member and a fellow of numerous medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Medical Association and numerous other organizations.

In his personal life, he was an avid conchologist, which is the study of mollusc shells, and a devoted student of philately, which is the study of stamps and postal history.

Miller, Robert W.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82090380
  • Person
  • 1921-2006

Dr. Robert Warwick Miller was born on September 29, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York(1). Miller was the eldest of two sons. Inspired by his parents’ passion for medicine as well as his uncle’s successful hospital, Miller had always wanted to become a physician(2). He attended the University of Pennsylvania for both his bachelor's and medical degrees(3). Miller greatly enjoyed medical school, particularly because they “encouraged innovation” in their students(4). He trained in pediatrics during his residency at the Buffalo Children’s Hospital. After completing his residency, Miller did not feel completely comfortable going immediately into a medical practice and decided that he needed to further his education(5). He graduated during a time in the medical community when specializing in a certain type of medicine was the general standard, but Miller was not interested in focusing on a narrow system or area of the body(6). Instead, Miller completed one year of post doctrinal training in radiation biology and radiation medicine for the Atomic Energy Commission at the University of Rochester, Case Western Reserve and Duke Universities(7). This was a new field that was attempting to discover the various effects of radiation on all parts of the body(8).

At the end of his training in radiation medicine, Miller was drafted into the army and assigned as a Captain to the Atomic Energy Project at the University of Rochester(9). While he was there, Miller “expressed his concern over the frequent use of fluoroscopy for examining young children, which led to a heated interdepartmental conference that resulted in more conservative radiological procedures, especially for children”(10). After noticing this, Miller became particularly interested in how radiation affects children(11).

At the end of his military tour in Rochester, Miller heard that two of the doctors he worked with would be conducting some research with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in Hiroshima. Miller thought this might be a perfect field study to learn more about how radiation affects young children, babies, and fetuses(12). Miller joined the ABCC as the chief ABCC Hiroshima’s children’s clinic(13). Miller and others examined children who survived the bombing after a Japanese pediatrician(14). They examined about 20 children a day, all between the ages of 9 and 19(15). Miller greatly enjoyed his time in Hiroshima and described it “it was a joyous time...it was like being 7 years old again and discovering many fascinating things around me”(16). After the work for the ABCC was complete, Miller stayed in Hiroshima for 6 more months to complete his pediatric study and to marry his wife(17). Miller met his wife, Haruko, at the ABCC where she was a nurse. Haruko also went by the nickname Holly(18). They were married at the U. S. Consulate in Kobe on February 21, 1955. They stayed in Hiroshima to complete Miller’s study of pediatric radiation before heading home to the United States. From his study, Miller concluded that “exposure to radiation before birth increased the incidence of mental retardation in children and small head circumference”(19). He also concluded that the closer the fetus is to the bomb’s epicenter, the greater risk there is for the child to have or develop health issues(20).

After his time in Hiroshima, Miller stayed on with the ABCC as a Professional Associate at the ABCC office in the National Academy of Sciences where he was responsible for recruiting staff and providing medical advice to the Chairman of the Division of Medical Sciences(21). While he was there, the ABCC proposed a second course of study of children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they needed a Chief of Pediatrics to help plan and institute the study(22). Miller agreed to attend the University of Michigan to get his doctorate in public health with the study as the research for his dissertation(23). This also served to train Miller in epidemiology. After graduating with his doctorate, Miller took the position as the Chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1961, where he remained for much of the rest of his career(24).

As the Chief of the Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Miller devoted himself to studying two different things: the link between cancer and congenital anomalies, and pediatric cancer epidemiology(25). To study the link between cancer and congenital anomalies, Miller conducted studies of different parings of cancers with genetic diseases. He studied the link between Wilms tumor and Aniridia, Down syndrome and leukemia, Ataxia-telangiectasia and leukemia and many more. In these studies, Miller concludes that there does seem to be a link between certain genetic disorders and certain types of cancer(26). In 1976, Dr. Miller became the Chief of the Clinical Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute(27). Throughout his career, Miller has had the opportunity to go to different sites around the world where people were exposed to vast amounts of radiation(28). He went to study Dioxin in Seveso, Italy as well as participating in the Air Force Agent Orange Study. He was able to go back to Hiroshima again, as well as Chernobyl and the Marshall Islands(29).

Dr. Miller was the Chief of the Clinical Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute until he retired in 1994(30). Throughout his career, Miller conducted a wide variety of studies and published most of his findings. When he retired in 1994, he was named a scientist emeritus at the National Cancer Institute and continued his research up until the year before his death(31). Dr. Miller died of colon cancer at his home on February 23, 2006 at the age of 84(32).

Putnam, Frank W.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82224702
  • Person
  • 1917-2006

Frank Putnam was born in New Britain, Connecticut, on August 3, 1917, to Austrian-born Franz and Henrietta Holzmann Poglitsch. His parents died of tuberculosis before he was three years old and he grew up in the New Britain Children's Home. Putnam was an excellent student in high school and was encouraged by a local bank manager, L. Marsden Hubbard. He changed his name around the time he left for Weslayan University in Middleton, Connecticut. He earned a BA in chemistry in 1939 and then an MA in 1940. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1942 and took a postdoctoral position at Duke University.

The Putnams left for Florida in 1955 to help found the University of Florida College of Medicine's biochemistry department. They stayed for ten years before moving on to Indiana University in Bloomington, to its new Division of Biological Sciences. In the 1970s and 1980s he made ten trips to Hiroshima and Nagasaki on behalf of ABCC/RERF.

Shigematsu, Itsuzō

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85367153
  • Person
  • 1917-2012

Shigematsu was an ABCC-RERF researcher.

Schull, William J.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85802836
  • Person
  • 1922-2017

William J. Schull, PhD was an American scientist and geneticist famous for his research into the effects of ionizing radiation on the human body largely based on the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after World War II. Dr. Schull began his scientific career in radiation research in 1949 when he joined the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), established in Japan in 1946 by the United States National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council to study the effects of the bombings in accordance with a presidential directive from Harry S. Truman. From his first post as Head of the Department of Genetics at ABCC, Dr. Schull served many decades in the elite corps of scientists conducting research into the genetic impact of irradiation on human health. A professor emeritus of The Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, Dr. Schull served on most of the major governmental and non-governmental committees formed throughout the 20th century to quantify the effects of ionizing radiation. He helped form the genetics department at the University of Michigan where he served as a professor from 1956 to 1972. As his career progressed, Dr. Schull frequently served in executive positions, chairing many of the governmental committees he served on and becoming a director, 1986-1987 and 1990-1991, and in 1996-1997, vice chairman and chief of research of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), established in 1975 as the follow-on organization to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Dr. Schull was inducted into the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2001. In affirmation of his long and honorable service to the Japanese people, Dr. Schull received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class from the Emperor of Japan in 1992.

William Jackson Schull was born on March 17, 1922 to Gertrude Edna (maiden name Davenport) (1900-1938) and Eugene Shull (1896-1975) in Louisiana, Missouri. While Shull is the last name inscribed on his birth certificate, his name was changed to Schull while he was in elementary school. Dr. Schull spent most of his boyhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from that city’s Lincoln High School in 1939. In 1946, Dr. Schull earned a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1947, he earned a Master of Science in Zoology from the same university. He received a Doctor Of Philosophy in Genetics From Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio in 1949. Enlisting in December 1942, Dr. Schull served in the United States Army as a surgical technician with the 37th Infantry Division in the South Pacific until December 1945. In concert with his scientific work, Dr. Schull valued the preservation of the archival historic record and promoted the preservation of the history of the ABCC and RERF throughout his career. He died June 20, 2017, in Houston.

A detailed curriculum vitae is available for Dr. Schull in the control folder for his collection at the McGovern Historical Collection.

Jablon, Seymour

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n87894758
  • Person
  • 1918-2012

Seymour Jablon was born June 2, 1918, in New York, and died April 9, 2012. He completed a bachelor’s degree at the College of the City of New York in 1939. He earned a Master’s in mathematics and mathematical statistics from Columbia University in 1941. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 until 1946 when he became a statistician for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jablon taught mathematics briefly at Rutgers before taking a job with the National Research Council in Washington, D.C., in 1948. He joined the ABCC in 1955 and was Chief of the Department of Statistics at the ABCC from 1960 to 1963, and 1968 to 1971. He was the associate director at the Medical Follow-up Agency at the National Research Council from 1963 to 1968 and then again from 1971 to 1977.

Joseph Lewis Belsky, MD

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88636538
  • Person
  • 1927-

Dr. Joseph Lewis Belsky was born March 14, 1927. He earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Drew University in New Jersey in 1949, followed by a master’s in chemistry fro Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1951 and, finally, an M.D. in 1955 from Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. He became board certified in internal medicine in 1963. He worked for a short time in private practice but spent the majority of his career as an endocrinologist in hospitals in Boston and in Connecticut. He was also a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr. Belsky was Chief of Medicine for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), a committee formed to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure on the residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan, from 1969-1972 (the organization is now known as the Radiation Effects Research Foundation or RERF).

In 1999, Dr. Belsky was awarded a Mastership by the American College of Physicians.

Lange, R. D. (Robert D.)

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88639606
  • Person
  • 1920-1999

Robert Dale Lange was born in Redwood Falls, Minnesota on January 24, 1920. He attended high school at North St. Paul High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. After graduated in 1937 he went to the Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1941 he received his Bachelor of Science. From 1941 to 1944, he studied medicine at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Robert D. Lange received the Jackson Johnson Scholarship all throughout medical school. He was the recipient of the Jackson Johnson Book Prize awarded to the graduating senior with the highest academic average at Washington University Medical School in 1944. Dr. Lange completed an internship in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, 1944-1945. Then Dr. Lange went on to serve as Assistant Resident in Medicine, University of Minnesota Hospital, Minneapolis, 1945-1946. He continued his postgraduate studies as a Fellow and Instructor in Medicine under Dr. C.V. Moore, Division of Hematology, Washington University School of Medicine, 1948-1951.

Dr. Lange served active duty in the United States Army as a Major at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. He was involved in the active reserves and remains so, 1942-1956, 1956-present. He was promoted to Colonel in 1969, and presently attached to the 489 Civil Affairs Company, Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Lange served in the Department of Medicine of the ABCC from 1951-1953. In 1953, he and his family returned to the United States. He immediately joined the academic world. He taught at these medical schools the University of Minnesota, Washington University and the Medical College of Georgia. In 1964, Knoxville, Tennessee became home for the Lange family. There Dr. Lange began his long association with the University of Tennessee. His first appointment was Research Professor at the University of Tennessee Memorial Research Center in 1964. He was promoted to a full professor in 1970. Over the years Dr. Lange accepted a number of chairmanship and directorship appointments with the University's Memorial Research Center and Center for Health Sciences.

Dr. Lange has written extensively in the area of hematology. His bibliography includes: 71 abstracts, 25 book chapters, 156 journal articles. From 1974-1977, Dr. Lange served on the editorial board of Experimental Hematology. He has written reviews for the following premier journals in medicine and the field of hematology: American Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology: Archives of Internal Medicine: Biochemical Medicine; Blood, Journal of Hematology: Experimental Hematology: Journal of Clinical Investigation; Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine; New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Lange has been a very active faculty member at the University of Tennessee. He has trained thirteen post doctoral fellows and graduate students. Dr. Lange been successful in obtaining grants and other external support for research. Most recently he was awarded $942,513 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for a ten-year study - "Regulation of erythropoiesis in rats during space flight." Some of the funded organizations have been: National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Cancer Society, Atomic Energy Commission, Physicians Medical Education and Research Foundation, John A. Hartford Foundation, Biomedical Research Support, McDonnellDouglas Corporation, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Dr. Lange has been an exchange visitor of the United States Academy of Science since 1968. He has delivered forty lectures to selected hospitals, medical schools, and research institutes throughout the United States and several foreign countries.

The Physicians Recognition Award from the American Medical Association was presented to Dr. Lange in 1969, 1972 and 1979. His honors included membership on Pi Phi Epsilon, Sigma X, Alpha Omega Alpha.

Dr. Lange has been very active as a physician, administrator and professor. He has medical licensure in the state of Tennessee and board certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member or fellow in fifteen societies. They are: American Federation of Clinical Research (Emeritus), Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Central Society for Clinical Research, Southern Society for Clinical Investigation, American Society of Hematology (Emeritus), International Society of Hematology (Fellow) American College of Physicians (Fellow), Knoxville Society of Internal Medicine, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of University Professors, Knoxville Academy of Medicine, Tennessee Medical Association, American Medical Association, International Society of Experimental Hematology, Society of Research Administrators. Dr. Lange has served on ten committees as a member and officer. These include: Chairman, Southern Blood Club, 1970; Chairman, Erythropoietin Workshop, American Society of Hematology Meeting, 1970, Chairman, National Heart and Lung Institute Erythropoietin Subcommittee of the American Society of Hematology, 1971. Now a member of this committee. A member of the Program Committee, Tennessee regional Meeting, American College of Physicians, 1971. Chairman, Oak Ridge Associated Universities/Oak Ridge National Laboratories Committee on Human Studies, 1975; A member of the UT Hospital's Executive Committee (ex-officio), Bylaws Committee, Graduate Committee, Planning Committee, and Professional Library Services Committee, 1977-; Chairman, Library Committee, Knoxville Academy of Medicine, 1978; Chairman, Human Participation Committee, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1978; Member, ad hoc Erythropoietin Committee, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, 1978-present.

Dr. Lange became Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medical Biology College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Medical Center in 1985. He is still on active staff at University Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee. Mrs. Lange volunteers at a medical library and their son resides in Houston, Texas and daughter in Atlanta, Georgia. In November of 1995 Dr. Lange, Mrs. Lange and their daughter visited the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library. Dr. Lange died March 16, 1999.

Moloney, William C.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n98044773
  • Person
  • 1907-1998

William Curry Moloney was born in Boston Massachusetts on December 19, 1907. He died in 1998.

He studied medicine at Tufts College and graduated in 1932 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. In 1961, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from the College of the Holy Cross. Dr. Moloney was associated with the Medical School of Tufts University for forty years. He began his career in 1934 as an assistant, then rose to a full professor in 1971 and retired in 1974. Dr. Moloney became Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School in 1974- and Emeritus Physician and Chief of the Hematology Division, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1967. He also served concurrent posts: Consultant, Boston Hospitals, 1938-, consultant, Boston City Hospitals, 1948-, director of clinical laboratories.

He is a fellow or member of the following organizations: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Federation of Clinical Research, American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, Association of American Physicians.

Dr. Moloney served in Japan with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) as the Chief of the Department of Medicine from 1952-1954. His hematology research at ABCC allowed him to work scientists from many departments.

Dr. Moloney and his wife, Josephine "Jo" (O'Brien) had four children.

Beebe, Gilbert

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no00084446
  • Person
  • 1912-2003

Gilbert Wheeler Beebe was born April 3. 1912 in Mahwah, New Jersey. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1933 and completed a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1942.
Beebe was a captain in the US Army and served in the Office of the Surgeon General during World War II. After the war, he worked with Michael DeBakey to set up the Medical Follow-Up Agency at the National Academy of Sciences. He also worked with Seymour Jablon, also through the MFUA, to reorganize the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan. Beebe remained director of the MFUA until he retired in 1977. Beebe joined the National Cancer Institute in 1977 and led studies on thyroid cancer and leukemia risk among radiation-exposed Belarusians and Ukrainians after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. He retired from NCI in 2002 but remained a Scientist Emeritus. Beebe died on March 3, 2003, in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Mahwah Cemetery.

Hamilton, Howard B.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2005037463
  • Person
  • 1918-2007

Dr. Howard Beye Hamilton was born in Oak Park Illinois on December 4, 1918. He graduated from the University of Rochester in New York in 1941 and from Yale University School of Medicine in 1945. Hamilton served in the United States Navy from 1942-1945, during World War II. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Hamilton conducted research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, the Long Island School of Medicine, the New York College of Surgeons, and the University of Tokyo in Japan.

In 1956 Dr. Hamilton moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he lived for the next thirty years. After his move to Japan, Hamilton served as the Chief of Clinical Laboratories for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) from 1956 until its dissolution in 1975. Hamilton worked in the same capacity for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), which succeeded the ABCC, until 1984. Between 1984 and 1986 Dr. Hamilton began transitioning into retirement; he continued to work as a consultant for the RERF during this time.

Dr. Hamilton was a consummate scholar and published extensively thoughout his career. Hamilton published papers on topics including endocrinology, steroid chemistry, enzyme kinetics, hemoglobinopathies, the structure and function of hemoglobin, genetic polymorphisms, biochemical genetics, the long term after-effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, and epidemiology of cardio-vascular disease.

Dr. Hamilton's hobbies included playing tennis and practicing the Japanese theatrical art of Noh, which features dramatic masks and carefully defined movements. After his retirement, Dr. Hamilton catalogued Noh and Kabuki works and published Noh plays. In some circles, Dr. Hamilton was known as much for his enthusiastic patronage and participation in Noh as he was for his work with the ABCC and RERF. (Source: Washington Post, May 9, 2007)

Dr. Hamilton died on May 9, 2007 at his home in Falls Church, Virginia. He was 88 years old.

Russell, Walter J.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2005037667
  • Person

Walter J. Russell received his medical education at St. Louis University Medical School. He graduated in 1952 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He is a member of several learned societies. They are as follows: Diplomate American Board Radiology (radiology), American College of Radiology, American Roentgen Ray Society, Health Physics Society, Nippon Societas Radiologica, New York Academy of Sciences, Pan American Medical Association, Radiological Society of North America, Society of Nuclear Medicine. In July of 1959, he was appointed Chief of the Department of Radiology of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Dr. Russell continued his to conduct his research with the ABCC successor organization, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. His association with RERF continues today. Dr. Russell, his wife Mitsuko and children still live in Hiroshima Japan.

Kastenbaum, Marvin A., Ph.D.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2013091446
  • Person
  • 1926-2019

Marvin Aaron Kastenbaum was born in New York City on January 16, 1926. During World War II, he served with the 124th Cavalry Regiment and later the 613th Field Artillery Battalion. Kastenbaum was stationed in Burma, and the units he was stationed with participated in the reopening the Burma Road, a vital supply route from Burma to China.

After the war, Kastenbaum returned to his studies and graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics in 1948. He received his Master's degree in statistics from North Carolina State College in 1950 and his PhD from the same institution in 1956.

In January 1953, during a hiatus from his studies, Kastenbaum took a post as statistician in the Biostatistics Department of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima, Japan. While with ABCC he had occasion to review much of the medical data which had been collected by the commission between 1947 and 1954. He and Dr. William C. Moloney wrote a study of A-bomb radiation on humans. Upon completion of the final report, Marvin A. Kastenbaum decided he would make a career of medical statistics. In September of 1954 he returned to Chapel Hill to complete the requirements for his doctorate in statistics at the University of North Carolina. While there, Dr. Kastenbaum worked as a statistician for the University's Department of Public Health.

Dr. Kastenbaum died September 24, 2019, in Orlando, Florida.

Yoffe, Boris

  • Person
  • 1949-

Boris M. Yoffe was born August 24, 1949. He earned an MD in 1974 from the Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. He has taught gastroenterology at Baylor since 1983.

ABAA KAKEN

  • Corporate body
  • 2016

The ABAA KAKEN group was began by Professor Masahito Ando, a renowned expert in Archival Science in Japan. The group completed a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) grant-in-aid research project titled "The Study on Developing Of A Digital Archive Relating To Atomic-Bomb Radiation Effect On The Human Body." The ultimate goal was to build a digital archive of Atomic-Bomb related documents. TMC Library with its unique collection of personal papers of ABCC -related scientists is a core member of the international part of the project and also a partner in international collaborative effort to make digitized documents available online for researchers around the world. The TMC Library agreed to preserve the work product of the group for posterity.

Tessmer, Carl F.

  • Person
  • 1912-2012

Carl Frederick Tessmer was born in North Braddock, Pennsylvania on May 28, 1912. He received his higher education at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1933 he received his Bachelor of Science with highest honor. From 1933 to 1935, he studied medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and graduated in 1935 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. Dr. Tessmer completed a rotating internship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 1936. He served his residency in pathology at Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, 1937. In 1937, he was granted a one year fellowship in pathology, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. On August 21, 1939 he married Maxine Keller. Together they had two sons, Jon and David. Upon the completion of his fellowship Dr. Tessmer accepted a residency in pathology at Queens Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, 1939-1940.

Dr. Tessmer has had a twenty-three year association with the United States Armed Forces. He served in the United States Army Medical Corps, from 1940-1963 and retired with the rank of Colonel.

During the early 1940s he worked in Laboratory Services in hospitals in Hawaii and Saipan. In 1946, he traveled back to the mainland and the East coast. At the Army Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. he served as a pathologist. He also was part of Operation Crossroads with Task Force One on Bikini Island, 1946 and worked for the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, 1947.

In 1948, Dr. Tessmer was appointed the first Director of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Dr. Tessmer's association with the program began even before its formal inception, he took part in a survey in 1946 which actually established much of the basis for the organization. This was with a distinguished pathologist Dr. Shields Warren, Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, and this included a significant amount of clinical data on A-bomb survivors, photographs and blood smears. As matters subsequently developed, he came the director of the program in Japan under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and Atomic Energy Commission.

The Tessmer family returned to the United States in 1951. For the next three years, 1951-1954, Dr. Tessmer was the Commanding Officer for the Army Medical Research Laboratory in Fort Knox, Kentucky. After attending the Basic Radioisotopes Training Course at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies in 1954 he was appointed Chief of the Radiation Pathology Branch and Chief of the Basic Science Division for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C. He served as Chief for six years, 1954-1960. Dr. Tessmer returned to Japan in 1960. For the next two years, 1960-1962, he served as the Chief to the Medical General Laboratory (406). Dr. Tessmer travelled to Houston, Texas after a year with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C., 1962-1963.

Dr. Tessmer has been affliated with the University of Texas for over a decade, 1963-1974. He has served as Chief Pathologist and Professor of Pathology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston and Graduate Faculty member at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science at Houston. While teaching at UTGSBS he sponsored four graduate students for the doctoral degree. From 1971-1973 he was the Program Coordinator for the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

From 1973-1985, Dr. Tessmer was associated with the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center, Temple, Texas in several capacities. His appointments were: Chief, Laboratory Service of the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center, 1973-1985; Medical Director, Medical Technologist School, Southwest Texas University, 1976-1977; Medical Director, Medical Technician School, Temple Junior College, 1973-1985. Dr. Tessmer's last academic post was as Professor, Department of Human Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Texas A&M University College of Medicine, College Station, Texas, 1977-1985.

Dr. Tessmer was very active as a physician, pathologist, adminstrator and professor. He had medical licensure in the states of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Hawaii, and Texas. He wrote forty-five publications. and was a member or fellow of eleven professional organizations. They were: American Society of Clinical Pathologists (Fellow), College of American Pathologists (Fellow), American Association of Pathologists, Radiation Research Society, Washington Society of Pathologists (President, 1959-1960), International Academy of Pathologists, Texas Medical Association, Texas Society of Pathologists, Texas Society for Electron Microscopy, Member, CAP House of Delegates, Texas, 1971-, Sigma Xi. His expertise has been in high demand. He served as a consultant to a number of institutes, committees and agencies. They were: Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Medical Division, 1956, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Division of Biology and Medicine Advisory Panel, AEC (Californium 252 program), 1968, HEW, Food and Drug Admistration, Radiation Bio-Effects and Epidemiology Advisory Committee, 1972. Dr. Tessmer has had a number of appointments: Diplomate to the American Board of Pathology - Clinical and Anatomic Pathology, 1941, Subcommission on Radiation Pathology, I.C.P.R., 1967-1973, President of the Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists, 1970-1973, Member of the International Commission for Stage Grouping on Cancer and Presentation of Results (I.C.P.R.) (International Society of Radiology), 1973-.

Dr. Tessmer retired from academia in 1985. His sons - Jon F. is a physician in Brownwood, Texas and David P. Lives in Pittsburgh, PA. On October 13, 1992 he married Shizue Murata. They enjoyed living in the Texas countryside and traveling until Dr. Tessmer's death on February 2, 2012.

Anderson, Raymond C.

  • Person
  • 1918-2008

Dr. Ray C. Anderson, MD, Ph.D, was born in Duluth, Minnesota in about 1918. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College where his undergraduate mentor Dr. J. Alfred Elson "helped him obtain a teaching assistant position at the University of Minnesota in the lab of Dr. C.P. Oliver, a leading geneticist. Anderson went on to complete his Ph.D. in Zoology (Genetics). Oliver encouraged him to apply to medical school to study the burgeoning field of medical genetics" (University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences: Biography, Spring 2008.)In 1946 Anderson recieved his medical degree from the University of Mainnesota, ranked first in his class.

After receiving his medical degree, Anderson accepted an internship at the University of Michigan Genetics Institute, where he met Dr. James Neel. In 1947 Dr. Anderson was obligated to enlist in the U.S. Army as a Medical Officer. In this capacity Dr. Anderson was asked by Dr. Neel if he would like to participate in a genetic study of survivors of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, Japan. Dr. Anderson was very interested in this research, and in November 1947 Anderson traveled to Japan to join the research team at the newly-formed Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Anderson remained with the ABCC for two years. During this time he worked closely, though not always harmoniously, with Dr. Neel. Anderson contributed to a number of studies of the health of the survivors and children of the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In 1949 Ray Anderson returned to the United States, where he gravitated towards the field of pediatric cardiology. He enjoyed a long and successful career in cardiology, and was a member of the surgical team at the University of Minnesota that preformed the very first open heart surgery. He published over 135 articles over the course of his career.

Dr. Ray Anderson enjoyed a long and distinguished medical career that spanned a number of years. The collection at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center focuses on the brief period of Dr. Anderson's career from 1947 to 1949, when he worked with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Dr. Ray Anderson died May 20, 2008 in Sun City, Arizona, where he lived part of the year after his retirement from medicine in 1980.

Minato, Kiyoko

  • Person
  • 1926-

Minato was a “genetics” nurse in the early years of the ABCC and Chief of Nurses for many years. She helped doctors collect information from midwives about the condition of newborns and assisted at follow-up housecalls. About 30% of newborns in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were examined by ABCC pediatricians up through 1953. She stated in a 2017 interview (she was 92 years old) that she trained in “pre-war German medicine” and found American medicine quite different.

Wigodsky, Herman

  • Person
  • 1915-2005

Herman S. Wigodsky was born in Sioux City, Iowa on June 12, 1915. His undergraduate education took place in South Dakota. In 1936 he received his Bachelor of Arts in the field of biology from Yankton College, Yankton, South Dakota. While at University of South Dakota, he was a laboratory instructor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology in the School of Medicine. The following year he received a Bachelor of Science degree in the field of medicine from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion South Dakota. From 1937 to 1941 he studied at Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois. During his years at Northwestern he served as a research associate in the Department of Physiology. In 1938 he received a Master of Science degree in the field of physiology. After two more years of study he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Doctorate in physiology. Finally in 1941 he graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree. Dr. Wigodsky completed an internship at Evanston Hospital, Evanston, Illinois, 1940-1941. After his internship Dr. Wigodsky taught at Northwestern University as an Instructor in the Department of Physiology. 1940-1946.

Dr. Wigodsky's service with the United States Military began in 1939. He served in the U.S. Army and Air Force Reserves, in ranks First Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel from 1939-1971. His first assignment with the United States Air Force was as Chief of the Department of Physiology, USAF School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Field, Texas. From the period, 1939 to 1947 Dr. Wigodsky accepted ten assignments from the United States Air Force.

Dr. Wigodsky became associated with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in 1947. He was the Professional Associate on the Committee on Atomic Casualties, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington, D.C. His assignment with the ABCC concluded in 1950 but his interest in nuclear accidents and radiation research continued.

Dr. Wigodsky was affiliated with the University of Texas Health Science Center and Medical School at San Antonio, starting in 1955. His first appointment was from 1955-1961, as the Director of the University of Texas Post-Graduate School of Medicine, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Wigodsky served as a consultant and later as an Associate Coordinator for the University's Regional Medical Program Planning Office, 1967- 1968, 1968-1970. For eight years, 1970-1978 he was a lecturer in the Department of Pathology. In 1978 he was promoted to Clinical Professor. He was very active as a physician, professor, consultant and administrator. He coauthored a chapter entitled "Humans as Research Subjects" for the book In Birth to Death: Biology, Science, and Bioethics editors T. Kushmer and D. Thomasma. His principal research interest is "Pathophysiology of atherosclerosis utilizing the baboon as an animal model for human cardiovascular disease risk factors."

Dr. Wigodsky married Jo Ann Pincus in 1946. They had three grown children - John, Dan and Ann. He died January 24, 2005.

Suzuki, Masamichi

  • Person
  • 1918-2014

Masamichi "Mac" Suzuki was born on October 18, 1918 in Acampo, CA. He received his BA degree from the University of California Berkley and studied medicine at the University of California San Francisco. As an American citizen of Japanese descent, Mac was forced to leave his third year of medical school and placed in an internment camp during WWII. During his time there he served as a camp doctor. He completed his medical degree at Wayne State Medical School in Detroit, MI. He served on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) from around 1948 to 1953, studying the effects of radiation on fertility in Japan. While in Japan, he met his wife, Zoe Green, who was serving as the Assistant Director of Nurses for the ABCC. Later Dr. Suzuki served as Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas raising to the rank of Major. He started a practice in the Detroit, MI area. He retired in his 70s. He died on December 19, 2014.

[source: https://www.desmondfuneralhome.com/obituary/Masamichi-Suzuki-M.D./_/1464932]