Atomic bombing survivor dies at 96

Sunao Tsuboi spent his life educating youngsters about anti-nuclear proliferation

Tokyo: Sunao Tsuboi, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing who made opposing nuclear weapons the message of his life, including in a meeting with President Barack Obama in 2016, has died. He was 96.

Tsuboi died on October 24 in a hospital in Hiroshima in southwestern Japan. The cause of death was given as an irregular heartbeat caused by anemia, Nihon Hidankyo, the nationwide group of atomic bomb survivors he headed until his death.

When Obama made his historic visit to Hiroshima, Obama and Tsuboi held each other’s hand in a long handshake and shared a laugh. An interpreter stood by. Tsuboi, a gentle yet passionate man, recalled he tried to talk fast, to tell Obama he will be remembered for having listened to atomic bomb survivors, known in Japanese as “hibakusha.” “I think he is such an earnest person or has the heart to feel for others,” Tsuboi said of the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima.

Tsuboi was 20 years old when he miraculously survived the US atomic bombing of his hometown on August 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.
He suffered such serious burns a part of his ear was gone. When he emerged from unconsciousness 40 days after the bombing, the war was over. He was so weak and scarred he had to start by practising crawling on the floor.

The world’s first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, killing 1,40,000 people instantly and within months.Tsuboi worked as a junior high school teacher. He was so intent on educating youngsters about anti-nuclear proliferation his nickname became “pikadon sensei,” combining the “flash-boom” onomatopoeia Japanese use to describe the bomb and the word for “teacher.”