Obituaries

Shigeaki Mori, Hiroshima Hibakusha Hugged by Obama, Dies at 88

REUTERS File Photo
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016.

Jiji Press

17:46 JST, March 17, 2026

Hiroshima, March 17 (Jiji Press)—Shigeaki Mori, the hibakusha survivor of the August 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima who was embraced by former U.S. President Barack Obama, died at a hospital in the western Japan city Saturday. He was 88.

Scenes of Mori, a historian, and Obama hugging in May 2016, during Obama’s visit to Hiroshima as the first sitting U.S. president, were reported by many media outlets around the world.

Mori shed tears when he was hugged by Obama.

Mori experienced the atomic bombing at a point some 2.5 kilometers from ground zero when he was 8. He had attended an elementary school where all of the children in the school building were killed, but he survived because he had transferred to another school just before the bombing.