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BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES, INC., UPTON. L.I.. N.Y. 11973 706141 Assistant Administrator for Environment & Safety Division of Biological and Environmental Research Energy Research and Development Administration On July 26th a Mr. Murakami, reporter for the Japanese newspaper Asahi in Washington, D. C. called about a story he had received from Japan that some 66 of our Marshallese medical records had been copied and were in the hands of the leftist anti A-bomb group (Gensuikin) in Japan. It was his opinion that they would get a doctor or doctors to review them (presumably in criticism of our examinations) to be used at the anniversary meetings of the Hiroshima bomb next month. haw they had gotten the records and he suggested that it may have happened in conjunction with the recent visit to Japan of the two Rongelap young men though he also thought Japanese from that group may have visited the Marshall Islands. I told him we had nothing to hide, but were disturbed about the unethical nature of obtaining the records. I also said that the records in the Marshall Islands were not complete but that we had much more extensive records on all individuals on our examination list at Brookhaven. I answered several questions for him concerning our findings and treatment of the Rongelap people and outlined our examination programs (annual surveys, semi-annual hematology checks and quarterly visits by our resident physician stationed at Islands. I told him the only incident I know of was the aborted visit of a Japanese "medical" team (mostly reporters) that had occurred in 1971 due to lack of proper credentials. I told him we had had Drs. H. Ezaki and I. Kumatori from Japan visit us on past surveys and suggested he contact them or the Radiation Effects Research Foundation if he wished to get bona fide Japanese medical opinions about our surveys. He aksed why Japanese were barred from visiting the I am sending a copy of this letter to Dr. LeRoy Allen at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation and request that he let us know about any Japanese publicity which may pertain to this matter.
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