After the Bomb

By Chris O'Connell
Special to washingtonpost.com

Six days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Kazayoshi Oyama was asked by his church to enter the city and search for the bodies of two priests. Now 77, Oyama continues to attend a clinic where medical researchers study the long-term effects of radiation on the human body. Was his stomach cancer – and the breast, thyroid and other cancers suffered by numerous survivors – caused by radiation exposure? Nearly six decades after the atomic bombing, experts are still searching for answers.