- z - r -· DECLASSIFIED Authority N '• 6t 2 3t ' 712 NO j SUBJECT Estimate of PI-esent Medical Status of the Twenty-Three Crewmen of the FUKURYU MARU TO - The American Embassy TOKYO - 82 There fol for the t bassy 1 s informations the text of a Ol memorandum dateli Apirl 30 prepared in the Atomic Energy Commission's C Division of Biology and Medicine giving an estimate of the medical status of the twenty three crewmeng OJU1 IN s J E TilFO G s s I understand you are interested in having a stated ment summarizing the medical situation of the Japanese fishermene ·01 Briefly as you are aware our Embassy in Tokyo has made repeated offers of United States medical assistance to the Japanesefi There have been frequent assurances by the Japanese authorities that these offers would be accepted and that the pa tients could accordingly be carefully examined and studied Drs Morton and members of his st aff have visited _tbe patients on s veral occas lpn t fbut t1 ey ave not been per'm1tted to conduct thoroUgh clinicai examinations r CJ 01 At the request of the Japanese samples b urine of the patieµt s have been examined by- the Health and Safety Laboratory of the Commission's New York Operations Office 'l'he results of · the analyses indicate that the patients from whom the specimens were obtained have ingested radioactive material These analyses however 9 do not give answers as to the condition of the patients nor oould they indicate the total dose of radiation originally ·receivedo Except for the urine samples referred to above the only other data of which we are aware 11 including the blood counts 9 have been provided by the Japanese themselves Complete data essential to the diagnosis and prognosis have been specifically requested by this office through our Embassy in Tokyo but have not been received It has been made clear in our communications ta the Japanese through the Ambassador that we are primarily interested in the· welfare of the patients that the cooperation of the Japanese in permitting medical examinations and in accepting or DRAFTED BY 5tAExGCSpiegelxfee S 9 Sh CLEA ANCES I ' I I APPROVED BY George c Spiegel Auili s I · j - - _ PAG _E_2_ 7 at 1 acknowledging offere of facilities$ equipment and medi ines is vital to the health interests of both nations$ Lacking this cooperation we annot venture to predict the outcome of the patients Nevertheass 9 based on the attached su mmary of blood cunts on the five most severely affected patientsj and other fragmentary data available to us 9 it would be unwise to assume at this point that all will recover People have been lmown to live many months and even a year or more with the white blood count as low as 2 1 000 but the longer the count remains this low the worse is the ultimate prognosise As recently as April 27 one count was still in the vicinity of 29 000 1 while five were between 21 500 and 39 0000 11 rn view of the information contained in the last paragraph of the AEC memorandum a draft st atement for use in the event of the death of one of the crewmen is being prepared in the Department$ The suggested text of· such a statement will be communicated to the Embassy in the very near future$ For the Embassyw s information the AEC memorandum is being made available to the JCAE Although the memorandum is unclassifiedi the Committee is being requested not to publicize the information contai xed in it because of the unfavorable repercussions that would follow its public release 0 L - - ' - - '