The Day the Sun Rose in the West: Bikini, the Lucky Dragon, and I

by Matashichi Oishi, Matashichi Oishi

On March 1, 1954, the U.S. exploded a hydrogen bomb at Bikini in the South Pacific. The fifteen-megaton bomb was a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and its fallout spread far beyond the official “no-sail” zone the U.S. had designated. Fishing just outside the zone at the time of the blast, the Lucky Dragon #5 was showered with radioactive ash. Making the difficult voyage back to their home port of Yaizu, twenty-year-old Oishi Matashichi and his shipmates became ill from maladies they could not comprehend. They were all hospitalized with radiation sickness, and one man died within a few months. The Lucky Dragon #5 became the focus of a major international incident, but many years passed before the truth behind U.S. nuclear testing in the Pacific emerged. Late in his life, overcoming social and political pressures to remain silent, Oishi began to speak about his experience and what he had since learned about Bikini. His primary audience was schoolchildren; his primary forum, the museum in Tokyo built around the salvaged hull of the Lucky Dragon #5 . Oishi’s advocacy has helped keep the Lucky Dragon #5 incident in Japan’s national consciousness.

Oishi relates the horrors he and the others underwent following the months in hospital; the death of their crew mate; the accusations by the U.S. and even some Japanese that the Lucky Dragon #5 had been spying for the Soviets; the long campaign to win government funding for medical treatment; the enduring stigma of exposure to radiation. The Day the Sun Rose in the West stands as a powerful statement about the Cold War and the U.S.–Japan relationship as it impacted the lives of a handful of fishermen and ultimately all of us who live in the post-nuclear age.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2011

Reviews

[Michael Wanger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This account gruesomly shows that surviving a nuclear explosion is worse than dying in it. Imagine unexpectedly witnessing a test and suffering from serious radiation-illness only to find the world turning against you. Author Oishi Matashihi not only fought against envy, prejudice and rejection, but for his own life: Surviving cancer, Hepatitis Type C and the mental burden of his stillborn child. He never gave up an thus earning legal recognition for his and his crewmates suffering - more than 40 years after the event! But still his fight wasn't over.

I found out about Oishi's story by chance while reading an article about the Bravo-test. I was lucky. Because "The Day the Sun Rose in the West" is a notable account of a victims fight for justice and peace. Even when the latter goal might be impossible to achieve. Sadly.

[Signy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across the true story of Japanese fishing trawler the Lucky Dragon after seeing the movie Oppenheimer and wanting to learn more about the early Nuclear Age.

Its 1954 and the Americans are carrying out nuclear tests in the South Pacific around Bikini Atoll. Matashichi and his shipmates were unknowingly fishing just outside the U.S. imposed danger exclusion zone when one of the nuclear tests (the hydrogen bomb test called Castle Bravo) takes place. The Lucky Dragon and its crew are soon covered in radioactive fallout. Within hours, most fall ill, and by the time they make it back to Japan, all are suffering from various levels of radiation poisoning.

The rest of the book deals with the lives, and untimely deaths of Matashichi’s fellow sailors over the years, while the story of the Lucky Dragon became yet another glaring human example of the horror of nuclear weapons. A disturbing but necessary read, told from the perspective of someone who was there.

[Bryan Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story.