War secrets

James Yamazake, an American doctor, looks to the survivors – in this case, the children – of the atomic bombs, but spreads his net beyond Japan. In Children of the Atomic Bomb (Duke University Press, $16.95, ISBN 0 8223 1658 7), he discusses the secrecy surrounding reports on the health of survivors (some not released until 1951), the difficulties of assessing the genetic damage to children and their descendants, and of reassuring the hibakusha, those who survived.