Takashi Morita, Who Led Efforts to Help A-Bomb Survivors Overseas, Dies at 100

Jiji Press

13:11 JST, August 14, 2024

Tokyo, Aug. 14 (Jiji Press) — Takashi Morita, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima who later immigrated to Brazil where he led efforts to help bomb survivors overseas, died of old age at a hospital in Sao Paulo on Monday. He was 100.

Morita was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of the Japanese city in August 1945 when he was a military police officer.

After Morita and his family immigrated to Brazil in 1956, the Japanese government stopped providing him with health care benefits under the atomic bomb survivors’ support law.

In 1984, Morita formed a group of atomic bomb survivors in Brazil. He filed a lawsuit in Japan demanding the same level of medical support for atomic bomb survivors living overseas as in Japan.

Morita engaged in activities to tell his experience of the bombing to young people in Brazil. He met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Brazil in May.