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Radiophobia is an abnormal fear of ionizing radiation, in particular, fear of X-rays. While such radiation is harmful (i.e. radiation-induced cancer, and acute radiation syndrome in higher doses) poor information or understanding,〔Note i.e. "a survey of more than 2,200 people in the United States, conducted by the National Science Foundation in 2012 () tests the public's knowledge of basic facts in the physical and biological sciences () All radioactivity is man-made. True or false? () False (72% (correctly ))" and yet this was the best score of several countries surveyed: Japan 69% (2011), EU 59% (2005), China 48% (2010), South Korea 48% (2004), Russia 35% (2003), Malaysia 14% (2008).〕〔 In Malaysia, the presence of (naturally) radioactive thorium in a rare earth element processing plant led to extreme fear: "one of my friends has even stopped construction of his new house in Kuantan because he is fearful of a nuclear explosion in the Lynas plant."〕〔 In India, locals near the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant had been told that it would cause Dengue fever.〕 but also as a consequence of traumatic experience, may cause unnecessary or even irrational fear. The term is also used in a non-medical sense to describe the opposition to the use of nuclear technology (i.e. nuclear power) arising from concerns disproportionately greater than actual risks would merit. ==Castle Bravo and its influence on public perception== March 1, 1954, the operation Castle Bravo testing of a then, first of its kind, experimental thermonuclear ''Shrimp'' device; overshot its predicted yield of 4-6 megatons and instead produced 15 megatons, this resulted in an unanticipated amount of ''Bikini snow'' or visible particles of nuclear fallout being produced, fallout which caught the Japanese fishing boat the Daigo Fukuryū Maru or ''Lucky Dragon'' in its plume, even though it was fishing outside the initially predicted ~5 megaton fallout area which had been cordoned off for the Castle Bravo test. Approximately 2 weeks after the test and fallout exposure, the 23 member fishing crew began to fall ill, with acute radiation sickness, largely brought on by beta burns that were caused by direct contact between the ''Bikini snow'' fallout and their skin, through their practice of scooping the "Bikini snow" into bags with their bare hands. One member of the crew, Kuboyama Aikichi the boat's chief radioman, died 7 months later, on September 23, 1954.〔http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ed20090301a2.html〕〔Lorna Arnold and Mark Smith. (2006). Britain, Australia and the Bomb, Palgrave Press.〕 It was later estimated that about a hundred fishing boats were contaminated to some degree by fallout from the test. Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were also exposed to fallout, and a number of islands had to be evacuated.〔 This incident, due to the era of secrecy around nuclear weapons, created widespread fear of uncontrolled and unpredictable nuclear weapons, and also of radioactively contaminated fish affecting the Japanese food supply. With the publication of Joseph Rotblat's findings that the contamination caused by the fallout from the Castle Bravo test was nearly a thousand times greater than that stated officially, outcry in Japan reached such a level that the incident was dubbed by some as "a second Hiroshima".〔 〕 To prevent the subsequent strong anti-nuclear movement from turning into an anti-American movement, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on compensation of 2 million dollars for the contaminated fishery, with the surviving 22 crew men receiving about ¥ 2 million each,〔Gerard DeGroot, ''The Bomb: A Life'', Random House, 2004.〕 ($5,556 in 1954, $ in 〔In 25 April 1949 the US dollar was pegged to the YEN at $USD 1 = 360 YEN〕) The surviving crew members, and their family, would later experience prejudice and discrimination, as local people thought that radiation was contagious.〔 The Castle Bravo test and the new fears of radioactive fallout inspired a new direction in art and cinema. The Godzilla films, beginning with Ishirō Honda's landmark 1954 film ''Gojira'', are strong metaphors for post-war radiophobia. The opening scene of Gojira echoes the story of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, from the initial distant flash of light to survivors being found with radiation burns. Although he found the special effects unconvincing, Roger Ebert stated that the film was "an important one" and "properly decoded, was the Fahrenheit 9/11 of its time."〔(Chicago Sun-Times )〕 A year after the Castle Bravo test, Akira Kurosawa examined one person's unreasoning terror of radiation and nuclear war in his 1955 film ''I Live in Fear''. At the end of the film, the foundry worker who lives in fear has been declared incompetent by his family, but the possible partial validity of his fears has transferred over to his doctor. Nevil Shute's 1957 novel ''On the Beach'' depicts a future just six years later, based on the premise that a nuclear war has released so much radioactive fallout that all life in the Northern Hemisphere has been killed. The novel is set in Australia, which, along with the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, awaits a similar and inevitable fate. Helen Caldicott describes reading the novel in adolescence as 'a formative event' in her becoming part of the anti-nuclear movement. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「radiophobia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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