This exhibit hall displays the Daigo Fukurya Maru or the”Lucky Dragon No. 5″ . This boat was fishing near the Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954 when the crew was awakened by a bright light and sunset like colors in the western sky. The US had detonated a hydrogen bomb 1000 times more powerful than the one at Hiroshima. Seven minutes after the western sunrise, the sound of the explosion reached the boat and within 2 hours radioactive fallout began raining down on the boat, which continued for three hours. The 23 man crew soon became ill from acute radioactive syndrome.
The boat and crew upon returning to port, had to be quarantined. The tuna catch already had made its way into the fish markets and had to be rounded up with the use of geiger counters. It is unlikely that all the fish were found and some most likely eaten. Some 75 tons of tuna caught between March through December 1954 had high levels of radioactivity and were unfit for consumption and had to be destroyed.
At the time of the explosion, the ship was outside the danger limits set by the US government. The US later expanded their danger zones. It was written that the blast was 2.5 times greater than the scientist anticipated due to an error in their calculations.
The boat retired from fishing and spent 20 years practice vessel for the Tokyo University of Fisheries.
To take photos of the entire ship was impractical and I got lost in it’s weathered sides.
Wow!