The atomic bombings were unprecedented in human history and caused damages and suffering that defy description. In order to clarify the effects of the bombings, it is the important duty of Nagasaki and Hiroshima to collect, organize and preserve information on the bombings, to make this information available for scientific research, and to preserve the information for future generations.

During the postwar decades, a call was heard for the establishment of a center for the collection of specimens of scientific value, general information on hibakusha, medical records, scientific literature, survey reports, statistical records, documentary accounts, photographs, films, audio-recordings and other important information. Then, in 1971, the Science Council of Japan recommended the establishment of a national "Scientific Data Center for Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Disasters."

As a result, the establishment of a center attached to the Nagasaki University School of Medicine was officially approved in 1972. The work of the center began in a room on the second floor of the Atomic Disease Institute, with departments of biostatistics and pathology staffed by one research associate and one technician each.

In 1974, the official name was changed from "Atomic Bomb Medical Data Center" to "Scientific Data Center for the Atomic Bomb Disaster." Construction of a ferro-concrete, three-story building (total floor space: 1,782 m2) was started on October 1 that year and reached completion on March 22, 1975.

In April 1997, Atomic Disease Institute and the Scientific Data Center for the Atomic Bomb Disaster were combined to become the Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University School of Medicine. As a result, our center was reorganized the Division of Scientific Data Registry.

In November 2001, our Division moved into the main building of the Atomic Bomb Disease Institute.

In April 2011, our Institute was reorganized.