Brutal private and social stresses persisted as well. As with Nagano’s painful emotional distance from her mother, many families remained shattered by blame and guilt. Children with visible injuries and hair loss were taunted by their uninjured schoolmates who called them “one-eyed devil,” “chicken leg,” “baldy,” “monster,” “atomic bomb,” and “tempura”—the last referring to Japanese deep-fried shrimp and vegetables.
