Shigeaki Mori, a Japanese atomic bomb survivor and historian who was famously embraced by former US President Barack Obama, has died at the age of 88. Mori passed away at a hospital in Hiroshima, according to Japanese media and the editors of the English translation of his book.
Mori was eight years old when he survived the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, located just 2.5 kilometres from the blast epicentre. Decades later, he discovered that American prisoners of war held in Japan were among those killed by the bomb dropped by their own country.
Working as a full-time employee, Mori spent over 40 years researching US and Japanese official documents, tracking down 12 American POWs who died in the attack. He wrote letters to their bereaved families in the US, many of whom had never known how their loved ones perished.
Mori authored a book, The Secret of the American POWs Killed by the Atomic Bomb, published in Japanese in 2008. It won the prestigious Kikuchi Kan Prize and was later translated into English. His research eventually led the US government to confirm the deaths of the 12 captured American service members.
In 2016, President Obama became the first US leader to visit Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. In his speech, he mentioned “a dozen Americans held prisoner” among the victims and acknowledged Mori’s efforts to seek out their families. Obama then embraced Mori in a moment that became iconic.
Mori once said of his work: “The research I spent more than 40 years was not about people from the enemy country. It was about human beings.”
