From Hiroshima to Fukushima : PTSD symptoms and radiation stigma across regions in Japan

Stigma is known to be associated with poorer mental health (Raguram et al., 1996). Perceived radiation stigma is the belief that people who were exposed to radiation are contaminated and are discriminated against (Tone and Stone, 2014). Japan is the only country that experienced two major nuclear disasters: the first the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, the second the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 (Ben-Ezra et al., 2012). In Japanese radiation exposure is “Hibaku”; this term, along with “Hibakusha” (an exposed individual), has been used to stigmatize A-bomb survivors and now it is used with respect to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011