Hibakusha are actually increasing.
The only times that nuclear bombs have been used in war were when the
two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War
II. However, for fifty years after that war, the number and power of nuclear
weapons increased. At this point, we have enough to kill every living
creature on Earth many times over. In the process of creating all those
weapons, millions of people around the world have been exposed to radiation.
Those people are also called hibakusha. Thus, the number of hibakusha
in the world is still increasing.
Semipalatinsk in the Republic of Kazakhstan is near a nuclear test
site used by the Soviet Union for about 470 nuclear tests. In that area,
more than a million people have been exposed to high levels of radiation.
Thousands more have been exposed in the islands of the South Pacific,
where other countries tested their nuclear weapons. Today, tests that
involve nuclear explosions have been banned, but there is always the possibility
that an accident will release radiation and create more hibakusha.
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