Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The political implications of Hiroshima’s scarred “maidens”

In May 1955, 25 young Japanese women, all of whom had been schoolchildren who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, were flown to the United States. They became known in the press as the “Hiroshima Maidens,” and they were brought to the United States so their scars might be healed through the power of American plastic surgery. The primary intent was to ease their suffering, but all involved understood that the wounds being healed were not just physical, but also political.