Wilbur > Recent Status Updates

- the safety zone in Nanking was established after a French priest saw the idea of a neutral zone in Shanghai and the effort was led by foreigners
- the book speaks of 3 people German John Rabe Nazi who helped Chinese and worked at Siemens responsible for power and phones, Robert Wilson at one point the only surgeon left, and Wilhelmina Vautrin head of Ginling college who helped thousands of women

- about half the population of Nanking had left before the Japanese arrived. Those who stayed were most likely too old, young, sick, or poor to leave. There were a few who were excited about the Japanese arriving

- the Japanese were relentless. There were killing contests, torture, rapes, and it was estimated the the death toll was near 300,000+

- Nanking is a city with a a lot of history and has been invaded 3 times. (6th century, 1853 by taping rebels, 1937 by Japan)
- August fighting starts in Shanghai and end of month it falls to Japan
- Nanking falls and leader of nationalists Chiang Kai-shek leaves Tang Sheng-chich in charge of defense in November
- govt officials moved west and by DEC 90,000 troops moved to Nanking for defense

- Nanking was located in a bend on the Yangtze River making it easy for the Japanese to flank and trap it from the south
- Late November the Japanese moved in 3 diff groups to surround the city
- General Matsui was in charge but he fell ill with TB and Prince Asaka assumed command
- Matsui had given orders to take the city civilly
-However Asaka (or his staff officer) gave the command to kill all. This is not clear

- why did the Japanese act this way in Nanking and why did officers and govt allow it?

- author argues that the history of Japan is rooted in bushido and military power.
-1852 US marched on and demanded Japan to open and trade with a show of military power. Japan had no choice but to agree but they planned to learn the western way and get revenge for this humiliation

- 50 days before before final triumph of Catherine WWII was declared in Europe. Demand for radium would skyrocket again (190g of radium used in WWII vs 30g used in WWI)

- now with manhattan project safety standards were introduced for plutonium thank to the girls

- 1956 after public concern the AEC established a commission to study the effects of radiation and once again studied the girls for decades

- insurance refused to cover Radium dial so they only had a single lawyer on Feb 10 1938

- radium dial found guilty and forced to pay Cantherine Donahue on April 1938

- first radium case was filed in 1925 in NJ

- Radium dial appealed all the way up to supreme court but still ended up loosing. Grossman was able to generate a lot of publicity to help the case

- 1925 Jay Cook filed 2 lawsuits against radium dial. April 17 court ruled against women and went up to Supreme Court but they lost. Cook resigned as their lawyer

- Dec 1936 radium dial closed but they were found again in NY

- girls went to Chicago and found a new lawyer Leonard Grossman in July 1937

- new trial date was in Feb 1938

- Radium Dial knew of radium poising since atleast 1925 but they lied to employees and to the public with their ads

- Dr.Loffler of Ottawa agreed to test to the girls for radium which confirms orange girls were radioactive. They met with Chicago lawyer James Cook who brought suit against radium dial in summer of 1934

- being in a small town and in an economic downturn girls were shunned by a lot of people

- 1931 Martland figures out that radium is giving the girls sarcomas

- May 14 1931 Irene La Porte filed suit against USRC. She dies June 16th but her husband would fight for years and this is the case would be the one that led to judgement for Orange girls

- June 1928 Radium dial company chose to get ahead. The printed ads saying mesotherium was the cause and radium was safe. Only Ella cruse filed a lawsuit

- fall 1928 5 girls did first examination where USRC was being shady but 3 docs still agreed they were still radioactive

- Nov 1928 Von Sochocky dies

- Feb 1929 Ella cruse in Illinois kept postponing trial for to lawyers trouble in gathering data

- The trial went to court and it seems as if the judge was on the girls side

- Von Sochocky flipped and lied in court

- USRC lawyers were able to postpone until sept 1928. 5 months away

- berry got o other lawyers to switch with him in order to move up to May

- judge Clark a respected judge stepped in and served as mediator

- Berry was now to get the help of Walter Lippmann on the most influential journalists of the 20th century

- first Trial date was on Jan 12 1928

- oct 15 1927 they did up mollie magia to test her for radiation. They found she had not died of syphillis

- Dec 1927 Ella Eckett dies and the find a sarcoma in her shoulder

- Dr.Flinn was a major reason why no lawsuits were filed in Connecticut against the Waterbury Clock company. He was lying to the girls and helped the company settle outside of court

- upon investigation Berry found that Flinn was never given a medial license. He was pretending the be a doctor

- Ottawa 1926 radium dial invents and implements the glass pen. However the girls found it inefficient and rules weren’t really enforced so they went back to original brushes

- No Ottawa women had fallen ill up to this point

- girls were unaware of data and reports that had already been published in NY and NJ

- 1926 law signed to make radium necrosis a compensate disease. However it was very specific and didn’t cover most symptoms

- USRC settled case with the 3 girls

- Dec 1926 Dr.Flinn published his report and found that radium was not the cause and that is was bacterial. He had already told drinker he thought he was radium. He was paid by radium companies

- DDS Knef tries to blackmail USRC to pay him but fails

- Von Sochocky was tested and contained more radiation than anyone up to that point

- grace, Quinta, Kathrine wanted to bring a lawsuit but Workmen’s comp statute of limitations was 5mo and federal court was 2years so they had issues getting a lawyer

- Katherine and Martland wrote the list of the doomed and named about 50 workers who had been sick

- Albina had a stillborn

- After further testing Martland was now sure it was radium that was killing these people. Specifically all the alpha rays, as well as the beta, and gamma

- Drinker report was finally published in Aug 1925

- dept of labor finally got involved and said provide protection or close

- Martland now ran tests on other girls and found them all to be radioactive and no cure

- Dr.Martland was made the new chief medical examiner. On June 7th first male employee dies and USRC inquires to have his body cremated and tested but asks Maryland to keep findings secret. Here they found radioactively

- Maryland and Von Sochocky test Sarah (Marguerite’s sis) with tests they devised. Unaware that another doctor had done a similar test in June 1925

- Dr.Hoffman published his report in spring 1925 and read it to American medical association but received not enough credit since he was a statistician and not a physician

- around this time Drinker had found out the USRC lied about his report to the women and got upset

- USRC hired Dr.Flinn to conduct another test

- May 1925 Warren died on train leaving position of Chief medical examiner in Essex county

- Feb 1925 in 1925 the inventor of radium paint, Sabin Von Sochocky, acknowledges the disease is due to occupation

- After reading the full report that had not been published in over a year Drinker states that disease is most likely causes this disease

- April 1925 investigation by Bureau of labor statistics is launched on Radium dial

- Kjaer was the investigator and in 3 weeks concluded that radium was in fact dangerous but no one told the girls

- Sept 1924 Dr.Blum dentist writes about “radium jaw” but no one really paid attention

- Hamilton a worker under Drinker decided to do he own investigation and was unaware that drinker had done one himself

- Wiley also reached out to a statistician Dr.Hoffman

- Marguerite Carlough sued USRC In Feb 1925 for $75,000

- June 3 1924 Drinkers delivered their report to USRC which claimed that blood work was completely normal and exonerated the company of any culpability

- Dr.Blum asked the company to help pay for the bills of his patient which he was sure was caused by radium but they right denied any help

- USRC hired Dr.Drinker to conduct study in April 1924 who made some interesting finds and observations

- an Orange health officer reached out to consumer league to do something since dept of labor and Public Health Service did nothing

- Dr.Knef had stored a piece of mollie’s jawbone in a drawer with some X-ray film and found them to be cloudy/ fogged but he didn’t put two and two together

- Jan 1924 Dr.Barry DMD was beginning to see a lot of patients with same symptoms. He refused to see anymore of they didn’t quit dial painting

- Hazel Kuser went to Dr. Blum in NY who pioneered xrays and one of USA first oral surgeons “poisoning by radioactive substance” he said

- commissioner McBride of dept of labor was pro business and lacked authority to do anything

- June 1923 people in Orange started dying All with similar symptoms. No action was taken after Szamatolski’s tests

- summer 1923 Orange health official investigated but let matter drop after manager was OOO

- December 1923 US Public Health Service issued an official report that precautions should be taken when handling radium

- Nov 1922 Irene Rudolph is suffering from the same symptoms as Maggie. She goes to see a dentist and the a doctor who reports possible phosphorus poisoning to Industrial hygiene division

- inspector went to Orange plant observed and took sent samples to for testing

- Dr.Martin Szamatolski a chemist was the one who ran the testing

- sept 1922 Radium dial company opens a factory in a small rural town of Ottawa, Illinois and hires girls as young as 11 to paint dials

- Mollie Maggie dies after a terrible time going through tooth and jaw decay. She ultimately hemorrhages through her jugular in September 1922z less than a year after getting the infection. He family is told it was syphilis