Ritsuko Komaki, 67, grew up in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing there. Her experience led her to become a radiation oncologist, and she now works at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, the treatment of lung cancer. Komaki was minutes from landing at the main airport in Tokyo when the earthquake struck last week.
Science talked Komaki after she returned to Houston. The conversation has been modified for brevity and clarity.
Q: I understand you just returned from Japan. Can you tell me about it
R.K:. Yes. I left here [Houston] Thursday. I had to give a lecture on Saturday morning in Tokyo therapy [about] radiation in lung cancer early.
Our flight was supposed to land here in Narita [Narita International Airport, about an hour's drive from Tokyo] March 11 at 3:20 so Friday. Around 3 am the earthquake. Continental Airlines agent announced that we are unable to land at Narita Airport because the airport was closed due to the earthquake.
Nobody mentioned how [it was].
They said we have to land somewhere - they turned around, very near Narita there was a base, a base of the Air Force. We landed [there].
We were there almost 1 hour.
Then they said we're going to Nagoya Airport. It was after 19 pm We landed there.
There was no Continental agents, and nobody knew - people who are on the aircraft about 260 people, they did not know what to do.
Q: What did you do
R.K :. Fortunately, I have my older sister living in Nagoya, it has been there 40 years. My elder sister is a veterinarian. She said.. "Well, you can come to my house" I took a taxi
When I arrived at his house, he was 1:00 Then I realized what is happening because I watching television.
She told me that this is one of the largest earthquakes they had.
And while I was there, they n 'have as a mild earthquake of grade 3, but Nagoya is in and they do not get much of the tsunami. they were very lucky.
While I was watching television, this nuclear plant exploded, number 1.
I have not had much time to sleep or anything. I'm just totally surprised what happens. They reported the tsunami swept villages. and then they showed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear. ... they have problems with the cooling system. ... they had to relieve the pressure by opening the valves and steam came out with cesium.
Cesium 30 years half-life I started thinking oh my God, this is going to happen. This looks like a story of Chernobyl.
Then they started talking about number 3, its danger, and number two, they tried to inactivate.
Q: What happened then
RK: I really wanted to go to Tokyo this morning, Saturday morning at 10 hours to give my speech. I kept calling and calling - Continental Airlines, Nippon airlines. No one answered.
I ended up calling the organizer in Tokyo. She said, "We have problems here, one that [comes] will have a very small meeting and for the love that we do not want you to come. We still have earthquakes and it might be too dangerous to come right here." The train between Nagoya and Tokyo had been arrested.
Q: What did you do after that ?
R.K :. I could not go to the meeting. But I saw all the details [on TV], really terrible, terrible deaths ... [kept] upward.
But my main concern was the explosion of the nuclear plant, the amount of radiation the people who live around the area will have, and I really think they have to get out.
Since I grew up in Hiroshima, I knew how long it would take to get rid of these radioactive materials. The incidence of cancer in Hiroshima and is up from just the regular cities. They have much higher leukemia, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer.
Q :. It seems that what is happening now is for you to think back to growing up in Hiroshima
R.K :. Yes. This is a kind of coincidence. It's a disaster. They should let people know exactly what will happen, the delayed effects [of radiation exposure].
Q: Do you think the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II affect the way people now react to nuclear disasters
RK: experience of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the only thing they have is the fear of radiation [even as therapy]. Radiotherapy [for cancer] treatment is not popular in Japan.
Q: You have family in Japan, yet your sister
RK: My younger sister, she still lives in Hiroshima, and my older sister, she lives in Nagoya. They do very well.
Q: Do you have plans to return to Japan?
R.K :. Yes. I meetings in June to Sendai. I just received an email [saying] they are planning to have this meeting, but they say they could postpone the date. The airport has been cleared.
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