The Asahi Shimbun: Paris-based filmmaker Kenichi Watanabe completed a documentary on nuclear radiation in time for the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident in March. The film, titled “Notre ami l’atome–Un siecle de radioactivite” (Our friend the atom–A century of radioactivity), traces the history of radioactive exposure, spanning more than a century, from the discovery of radioactivity through today. It is told from the perspective of radiation victims.

The Asahi Shimbun: “In stark contrast to Hiroshima, this city [Nagasaki] has no formal archives dedicated to preserving the history of its August 1945 atomic bombing, a Japanese sociologist discovered to her amazement. The dearth of records chronicling Nagasaki’s destruction and aftermath prompted Chie Shijo, a visiting fellow at Nagasaki University, to press Nagasaki prefectural authorities to start a drive to collect official papers, diaries by hibakusha survivors and other records owned by private individuals to document the period.”

Kyodo News: “Hundreds of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, known as hibakusha, and their children are planning to undergo genome analysis to determine whether exposure to the radiation from the 1945 blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has impacted health further down the line, a research facility said recently. The study by the Japan-U.S. joint organization Radiation Effects Research Foundation, located in the two Japanese cities, will look into the DNA of around 900 families.”

Kyodo News: “Atomic bomb survivors and anti-nuclear activists urged Japan on Sunday to ratify a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons, saying Tokyo should take the lead in achieving a world free of such weapons.”