Preface

Nagasaki Association for Hibakushas Medical Care (NASHIM) was established in 1992. The activity of this organization is many-sided. It subsidizes rendering qualified medical assistance to the people suffering from Nagasaki atomic bombardment who live now outside Japan and to all radiation victims of the world. The Association finances the work of qualified Japan specialists in population recovering in the areas contaminated by radiation all over the world. NASHIM is also engaged in publishing books. Thus in 1995 the books «Radiation: questions and answers» - in Russian and «Nagasaki symposium: radiation and human organism» - in English were published. In 1996 the book in two languages (Japanese and Russian) «External environment radiation and state of health of the population and agricultural animals in Central Kazakhstan» was published.
Some years ago a documentary film «Kazakhstan today» about history, culture and traditions of this country as well as about the problems connected with rendering medical assistance to persons suffering from nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk proving ground was shot. NASHIM is also engaged in issues connected with Chernobyl problems.
At present this Association with support of Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepares the publication of various books in electronic form that will become the cheapest and most available training materials for physicians and medical students of all CIS countries. In the regions suffering from Chernobyl  nuclear power station failure the dataware infrastructure will be created in the nearest future. It is planned to create  a great number of training aids on morphology, physiology and molecular biology, prophylaxis, early diagnostics and treatment of thyroid. One of them is the work of Vladimir Sergeyevich Parshin, Doctor of Medical Sciences, leading scientific officer of radiation diagnostics methods department of Medical Radiological Scientific Center of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Financial difficulties did not allow to publish the book in large edition but its value as an excellent training material is priceless. Therefore the idea to create electronic version of this Atlas occurred and this Atlas will become a long-awaited companion of physicians that carry out a difficult task in rendering qualified medical service to the population even in most distant quarters of the former Soviet Union countries. At present the work in this field is carried out by employees of Minsk State Medical Institute of Byelorussia Republic in order to create electronic library.
The XXI century must become the century of joining up the efforts of physicians and scientists of all the countries directed to eliminate consequences of the radiation accidents.
In conclusion I would like to express my appreciation to professor Shunichi Yamashita as well as to all those who took part and rendered assistance in creation and publishing this book.
 

Tetsuya Iseki
President of NASHIM Association