Shigeaki Mori, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and famously embraced by former Barack Obama during his historic 2016 visit, has died at the age of 88.
Mori, eight years old when the bomb destroyed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was knocked unconscious by the blast. He later devoted decades to locating victims who had been cremated at his school playground and identified 12 Americans who died in the attack.
The image of a tearful Mori in Obama’s arms at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park became an iconic moment of the first visit by a sitting U.S. president.
Shigeaki Mori passed away in a hospital in Hiroshima on March 14.
Many survivors of the atomic bombings, known in Japanese as «hibakusha,» continue efforts to preserve the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To date, the two cities have recorded around 550,000 deaths, including those from radiation-related illnesses.
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