Shigeaki Mori, survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and welcomed by Obama, dies at 88

Shigeaki Mori, a survivor of the Japanese atomic bomb in Hiroshima and a historian, but best known for the big hug given to him by then-US President Barack Obama during his historic visit to the city a decade ago, has died. He was 88 years old.

Born in 1937, Mori was eight years old when he survived the American attack on August 6, 1945. He was just a mile away from the explosion. Some 30 years later, he learned a little-known fact: that American prisoners of war held in Japan were among those killed by the atomic bomb dropped by their own country.

Working as a full-time employee of the company, Mori researched official American and Japanese documents and located 12 American prisoners of war. He wrote letters to his bereaved families in the United States who did not know how their loved ones had died.

The American atomic attack on Hiroshima instantly destroyed the city and killed tens of thousands of people. The death toll at the end of that year was 140,000. A second bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed another 70,000 people.

Mori is the author of a book, “The Secret of American Prisoners of War Killed by the Atomic Bomb,” published in Japanese in 2008. The book earned him the prestigious Kikuchi Kan Award and was later translated into English.

The editors of the English translation of his book said on their website that Mori died on Sunday. Japanese media reported that he died in a hospital in Hiroshima.

Their investigation eventually led to the United States confirming the deaths of all 12 American service members captured in the bombing.

“The research I conducted for more than 40 years did not focus on people from the enemy country, but on human beings,” Mori later said.

Obama, who became the first American leader to visit The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in 2016 mentioned in its speech “a dozen American prisoners” among the victims. He credited Mori for searching for the Americans’ families, believing their loss was equal to his own, and then gave him a hug.

Mori seemed overcome with emotion as he shook her hand.

“The president made a gesture as if he was going to give me a hug, so we hugged,” Mori told reporters afterward.

“I heard screams”

Mori was thrown into a river by the force of the huge explosion on August 6, 1945.

“I came out of the water and saw a woman staggering toward me,” Mori told News before meeting Obama at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in 2016.

“He had blood everywhere on his body and internal organs were hanging from his abdomen,” he recalled.

“While holding them, she asked me where she could find a hospital. Crying, I ran away, leaving her alone,” he said.

“People who were still alive collapsed around me. I escaped by hitting their faces and heads. I heard screams coming from a ruined house. But I fled because I was still a child with no power to help.”