A NAGASAKI World War Two bombing survivor – who devoted his life to campaigning against nuclear weapons – has died aged 93.
Shigemi Fukahori horrifically described the “skin melting” impact of the terror 1945 nuke that blitzed his Japanese city.
APShigemi Fukahori had died aged 93[/caption]
GettyThe Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, where he prayed nearly daily until last year, confirmed his death[/caption]
GettyThe survivor described seeing ‘skin melting’ after the horror nuke[/caption]
GettyAtomic cloud rises over Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945[/caption]
Fukahori died on January 3 in a Nagasaki hospital in the southwest of Japan.
He became famous after surviving the horror nuclear bomb that tragically killed nearly 50,000 people and shaped the area for decades.
Fukahori was only 14 when the US dropped the atomic weapon on August 9, 1945, which would officially end World War Two.
The Nagasaki nuke blasted just three days after an initial atomic bomb killed around 100,000 people in Hiroshima.
Japan surrendered days later after the attack but Fukahori spent years detailing the atrocities of this terror blitz.
He died due to old age, according to local media, but Fukahori previously shared the horrific scenes he saw when he was just a teenager.
Fukahori told Japanese broadcaster NHK in 2019: “On the day the bomb dropped, I heard a voice asking for help.
“When I walked over and held out my hand, the person’s skin melted.
“I still remember how that felt.”
The bomb also had a devastating impact on the teenager as his family were wiped out by the nuke.
Fukahori was unable to talk about the horror attack for years, due to his misery and grief.
The peace advocate opened up about his terror experience 15 years ago, after a visit to Spain.
He became outspoken after meeting a man who experienced the 1937 bombing of Guernica, also at 14 years old, during the Spanish Civil War.
Fukahori’s work for peace and against war led him to handing Pope Francis a wreath of white flowers during a 2019 visit to Japan.
The survivor then represented the World War Two bomb victims at a ceremony in 2020.
He said: “I am determined to send our message to make Nagasaki the final place where an atomic bomb is ever dropped.”
Why were bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
IN July 1945 US President Harry Truman gave the order for atomic bombs – developed by Manhattan Project scientists – to be dropped on six Japanese cities after endless bombing proved fruitless on Japan.
The Americans were desperate for a way to put a stop to the conflict, calculating an invasion of Japan would drag on for years and cost a million Allied lives.
Allied forces suffered heavy casualties in Europe until Germany surrendered in May 1945.
Japanese soldiers had shown they would fight fiercely to the end and refuse to surrender.
In some battles with US forces, up to 99 per cent of Japanese troops had been killed or committed suicide rather than be captured.
Generals calculated the new atomic weapons would strike a psychological blow and demonstrate America’s superiority.
Hiroshima was chosen as a target due to it being largely untouched in the Pacific War from the nightly bombings.
It was also the station for major military headquarters, said US officials.
The Target Committee said Hiroshima was “an important army depot and port of embarkation in the middle of an urban industrial area. It is a good radar target and it is such a size that a large part of the city could be extensively damaged.”
Nagasaki was a major military port and housed one of Japan’s largest shipbuilding and repair centres.
Reports say the city of Kyoto was originally set to be attacked in place of Nagasaki but plans changed.
Fukahori’s fierce work regularly saw him talking to students about the 1945 horrors.
He often described “the baton of peace,” in reference to his advocacy, which he hoped people would carry on with.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
US President Harry Truman gave the order for atomic bombs – developed by Manhattan Project scientists – to be dropped on six Japanese cities, in July 1945.
The first target chosen was Hiroshima, an industrial city with a large military HQ in the south west.
A B-29 Superfortress bomber named Enola Gay after the commander’s mother took off from Tinian in the Northern Marinara Islands, early on August 6.
At 8.15am it dropped the Little Boy uranium bomb, 9ft 10in long and weighing 9,700lb, from a height of 31,060ft.
Three days after the Hiroshima blast, the “Fat Man” plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing around 50,000.
Six days later Japan surrendered and the war was over.
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