Medical Advancements of Radiation-Induced Cancer on the Survivors of the Atomic Bombings in Japan during World War II

Throughout WWII, the medical experiments conducted advanced the field of medicine. However, unethical experiments caused numerous unnecessary fatalities. These included the Josef Mengele experiments in Nazi Germany and the United States experiments. The atomic bombs, dropped by the United States on Japan, that ended World War II, began a lifelong study on the effects of ionizing radiation on the survivors. The Life Long Study researched the survivor's rate of cancer incidences as well as the effects on their children. Scholars will disagree on whether the atomic bombs were necessary to end the war, however, this left unintended consequences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ethicality of the lifelong research study advanced medical imagining knowledge by limiting the amount of radiation a person can be exposed to in a certain time period ultimately reducing side effects from radiation and preventing possibilities of cancer.