Averill A. Liebow Collection, 1945-1966

Historical Library

Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

Yale University



1.5 feet (3 boxes)



Averill A. Liebow (1911-1978), a native of Austria, came to the United States as a young boy. He was graduated Magnum Cum Laude from the City College of New York, received his medical degree from Yale University in 1935. He was appointed an Assistant in Pathology in 1935, and rose through the ranks to full professor in 1951. In 1968 he accepted the Chairmanship of the Department of Pathology at the University of California, San Diego, which he held until his retirement in 1975.

While on active duty during World War II (1939-1945), Dr. Liebow served as a pathologist within the 39th General Hospital, the Yale Unit in the South Pacific. During his spare time he compiled elegant studies of coetaneous diphtheria that made specific treatment possible for a form of "jungle rot," which was a major problem in the South Pacific Theater of the war. Immediately after the war, Dr. Liebow was recruited as a member of the United States Atomic Bomb Causality Commission that entered Japan to survey the disasters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, receiving his first glimpse of the devastation in early September 1945. During this period, he compiled an extensive short hand diary, entitled "Encounter with Disaster," of his observations.

This collection related to the pathological studies conducted by Dr. Liebow and his colleagues while at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Comprised of the materials from his 1965 exhibit at Yale University and 1966 exhibit in Hiroshima, Japan, it includes portions of his original diary (in shorthand), correspondence and reproductions of original photographs, charts and graphs. Much of this material was published in as "Encounter with Disaster-A Medical Diary of Hiroshima 1945," Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 38(2) (October 1965). There are also unpublished items including notes, drawings, and some photographs contained within the collection. Individually and as a whole these items comprise a poignant historical and medical record of the devastation and human suffering that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the days following the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 5, 1945.



The collection is organized into two Series: I. The Exhibit; II. Related Reprints



Series I: Exhibit Material

Box 1



Liebow 01: Liebow, Averill A., "Encounter with Disaster-A Medical Diary of Hiroshima, 1945." Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.



Liebow 01a: Leibow, Averill A., "Recommendations for the Continued Study of the Atomic Bomb Casualities."

Liebow, Averill A., "Pathology of Atomic Bomb Casualties," American Journal of Pathology.

Liebow 01b: Care Report: Okita, Hirosi



Folder 01: Publicity for Dr. Liebow's Exhibit (including a letter by Madeline Stanton, Yale Medical Library )

Folder 02: Exhibit Layout (charts)

Envelope 01: Photographs of the exhibit (damaged by water)



Exhibit Case 1

Folder 01: Exhibit Labels

Envelope 02: Photographs

I.01 Dr. Jack Davidson Rosenbuam

I.01a Portraits of members of the Joint Commission

(see miscellaneous. Box III)

I.03 Members of the Joint Commission

I.07 Prof. Kanshi Sassa

I.09 Tokyo Imperial University, 1945

I.10 Institute of Pathology, Tokyo Imperial University

I.12a Top: Members of the Joint Commission

Bottom: Dr. Ishii and assistants

I.13 Tokyo First Military Hospital

Envelope 03: Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, corresponcence



Exhibit Case 2

Folder 04: Exhibit Labels

Envelope 04: Photographs

II.04 St. Luke's Hospital, Tokyo

II.09 Weather Related Damage at Ono Hospital

Envelope 05: Letter from general Headquarters

(See also, Box III)



Box 2



Exhibit Case 3

Folder 05: Exhibit Labels

Envelope 06: Photographs

III.01 Photograph of a street in Hiroshima (near Hiroshima Palace?), pre-

Bombing.

III.04 Aerial photograph, pre-bombing.

III.05 Hiroshima, post-bombing

III.05 Panoramic Photograph of Hiroshima, pre-bombing.

III.07 View across hypocenter toward the Geibi and Sanwa Bank buildings. (color photograph)

III.09 View of Hiroshima looking towards mountains, post-bombing.

III.10 Man standing on bunker.

III.11a View of the Chamber of Commerce Building from River

III.12 View of hypocenter.

III.12a View across hypocenter from Sanwa bank.

III.12b Aerial view across Hiroshima (Oct. 1945)

III.12c View of Chamber of Commerce Building from Businessmen's Club.

III.13 Mangeled steel frame

III.14 Chamber of Commerce Building (before)

III.14a Chamber of Commerce Building (after)

III.14b Close-up of rubble

Envelope: Maps of Bomb Site (Hiroshima)



Exhibit Case 4

Folder 06: Exhibit Labels

Envelope 07: Photographs IV3-6

IV.02 O---, visited on October 23rd. (hospitalized with severe radiation

sickness)

IV.02a Shadow of person on Banti Bridge (1,000 meters from hypocenter)

IV.03 Cptn. Boswell standing in the position of a man at the moment of Explosion.

IV.04 Outline of a cart and of the person drawing it, as seen from above

IV.05 Fruit showing effects of heat

IV.06 Valve showing effects of direct exposure to rays.

IV.07 Differential of dark and light surfaces in absorbing heat.

IV.08 Face of monument at Gokoku shrine, 300 meters

Envelope 08: Photographs IV9-15c&d

IV.09 Flash burn in acute stage

IV.10 Unidentified subject suffering from flash burns (male)

IV.10a Unidentified subject suffering from flash burns (male)

IV.12 Typical profile burn. The patient, a nurse at the Red Cross Hospital, age 17.

IV.13 Shadow of the prison wall at Hiroshima, 2,300 feet.

IV.14 Typical mask burn

IV.15 Charring of the dark blue portions of the polka dot pattern of clothing at 1,600 meters.

IV.15b Scorching of the dark blue stripe with less effect on the lighter stripes by heat waves at 17,000 meters.

IV.15c&d 20 year-old female subject with ray burns.

IV.16 Unidentified subject (adult male)

Envelope 09: Photographs IV17-19

IV.17 Epilation and petechiæ in a patient exposed within the military Compound, 1,000 meters.

IV.18 Profile burns of legs.

IV.19&20 Unidentified subject (child)

Envelope 10: Photographs (miscellaneous)

Envelope 11: Diary notes



Exhibit Cases 5&6

Envelope 12: Photographs V1-9

V.01 Street shortly after explosion (6 August, 1945)

V.02 Temporary tents - Hiroshima no.2 Hospital

V.03 Nurse ministering to burned and sick patients

V.04 Burned and injured patients

V.05 Red Cross Ambulance

V.06 Fukuramachi Aid Station

V.07 Clinic (early October 1945)

V.08 Bulletins written on a wall regarding the whereabouts and conditions of various persons.

V.09 Families of patients assisting in the care of their sick relatives

Envelope 13: Photographs V10-17

V.10 Patients, Red Cross Hospital

V.11 Patients waiting for treatment

V.12 Professor Tamagawa (Autopsy Room of Communications Department General Hospital)

V.13 Doctor treating burn patient

V.15 Doctor treating burn patient

V.16a Exterior (showing damage to upper floor) Red Cross Hospital

V.16b Exterior, Red Cross Hospital

V.16c Interior damage, Red Cross Hospital

V.16d Transportation of injured

V.17 Laboratory

Envelope 13a: Photographs IV02-06

VI.02 Daiwa Rayon Mill

VI.03b Entrance to Ujina Hospital

VI.04 Workers dormitories, Daiwa Rayon Mill

VI.05 Group from the Laboratory of the Joint Commission, Ujina

VI.06 Members of the Joint Commission, visit to Iwakuni

VI.12 Patient with almost healed hemorrhagic and ulcerated lesions of the Gums.



Exhibit Case 7

Folder 07: Exhibit Labels

Folder 08: Misc. Notes and photographs

Envelope 14: Photographs

VII.04 Prospective drawing (original drawing in envelope 15)

VII.13a Foundation (Hiroshima Palace?)

VII.14 Building, pre-bombing

VII.14 Building, post-bombing

VII.15 Exterior, communications bunker (800m)

VII.15a Interior, communications bunker (800m)

Envelope 15: Maps and Charts (Line drawings)

VII.01 School Children Distribution of Work Parties

VII.01a Mortality and Casualty Rates of "Shielded" School Children

VII.01b Mortality rate of "Unshielded: School Children

VII.02 Map Showing Location of Yasuda Girls School Causalities

VII.05 Otake District - showing positions of certain work groups

VII.06 Buildings Studies for Shielding Effect

VII.11 Relation of Mortality and Total Casualty Rates to Distance

VII.12 Disposition of Military Units

Envelope 16: Sketches

-Prospective drawing (Reproduced as item VII.04 - Envelope 13)

-Sketch showing the positions of persons (Central Telegraph Office)

-Notes regarding findings in certain persons (Central Telegraph Office)

Envelope 17: Charts

VII.10 Correlation of Shielding and Survival Factors



Box 3



Exhibit Case 8

Envelope 18: Diary (loose sheets)

Envelope 19: Clinical Observations (draft)

Envelope 20: Parts Involved

Envelope 21: Radiation Injury

Envelope 22: Study of Lukopenia and Anemia as a result of exposure to radiation.

Envelope 23: Dying after the sixth week.

Envelope 24: HP112-9(k) Enami Prison, Allied Photo: 112-b

Envelope 25: Blast, Burns, Radioactivity (mission notes)

Envelope 26: Notes on Bone Marrow

Envelope 27: Notes on Burns

Envelope 27: Notes, general



Exhibit Case 9

Folder 09: Exhibit Labels

Envelope 29: Photographs

IX.05 Jesuit Monastery at Nagatsuka

IX.06a City in the process of regrowth (1949)

IX.08 Chamber of Commerce Building from balcony of Busisnessmens' Club.

IX.08a Chamber of Commerce Building (post-attack)

IX.08b Peace monument at the Chamber of Commerce Building (1949)

IX.09 View across hypocenter toward the Geibi and Sanwa bank

buildings. The upright tree, stripped of branches, indicates the

downward direction of the blast.

Envelope 30: John Hersey, Hiroshima (1946)

Envelope 31: Surgeon General, Army Medical Department, "What you should know about the atomic bomb," pamphlet, 1948.





Exhibit Case 10

Folder 10: Exhibit Labels

Envelope 31: TLS from Z.(?) Ishii, 24 November 1945; TLS receipt from R.O. McCarthy, 24 November 1945

Envelope 32: ALS from Dr. Masushi Miyake, November 23, 1945; ALS from M. Miyaki to Lt. Col. Ribot, n.d.

Envelope 33: TL (copy) to Dr. Jasushi Mitani, 26 June 1957; TLS from Mitani , July 15, 1957



Miscellaneous:

Folder 11 (exhibit case 2): Physiological effects of the atomic bomb

Folder 12 (exhibit case 8): Shorthand notes

Envelope 34: Postcards

- Hiroshima Palace

- The Aioibashi and the Sangyo-shoreikan

Envelope 35: Personnel of the Joint Commission

Photographs:

- 1a, See series I Envelope 02

Three exhibit labels:

- Origins of the Joint Commission for Investigation of the Atomic Bomb

- Personnel of the Joint Commission

- Medical Personnel of the Joint Commission



Series III: Typescripts and reprints by others



Folder 13: Study of Casualty Producing Effects of Atomic Bombs (Memorandum)

- Including an original Eyewitness account of the affects of the Atomic Bomb by P. Siemes.

Folder 14: American Health Study - typed pages

Folder 15: Doughty, "Spleen Index in Atomic Bomb Survivors" (1973) - reprint

Folder 16: Belsky et al, "Health of Atomic Bomb Survivors: A Decade of Examinations

in a Fixed Population" (1973) - reprint

Belsky, et al, "Hepatitis-associated Antigen in Atomic Bomb Survivors and Nonexposed Control Subjects: Seroepidemiologic Survey in a Fixed Cohort" (1973) - reprint

Folder 17: C. Hall et al, "Serum Immunoglobulin Levels in Atomic Bomb Survivors in Hiroshima, Japan" (1973) - reprint

Folder 18: Anderson, "Longevity in Radiated Human Populations, with Particular reference to the Atomic Bomb Survivors" (1973) - reprint

Folder 19: Liu, et al, "Autopsy Study of Granulocytic Sarcoma (Chloroma) in Patients with Myelogenous Leukemia, Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1949-1969" (1973)

Folder 20: Blot and Miller, "Mental Retardation Following in Utero Exposure to the Atomic Bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki " (1973) - reprint

Folder 21: Research Protocol" 101-142 (incomplete) -- pamphlets on research on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."



Folder 22: Jiro Uraki, Professor, Hiroshima University. "Reminiscences of the Past 20 Years," translation - mimeograph







Tal/9.23.03