Hibakusha Attends Ceremony for U.S. POWs Killed in Hiroshima A-Bombing

May 29, 2018

Lowell, Massachusetts- Shigeaki Mori, who survived the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city of Hiroshima, attended a memorial ceremony in Lowell, Massachusetts, on Monday for 12 U.S. prisoners of war killed due to the nuclear attack.

Mori, 81, a hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivor, and historian from Hiroshima, also met with bereaved relatives of some the U.S. POWs, all of whom were troops.

He has spent some 40 years researching the 12 POWs and finding their families. Lowell is the hometown of Normand Brissette, one of the 12.

A new monument bearing the names of the 12 victims was unveiled at the ceremony. "They were true patriots, who fought for their country," Mori told people present at the ceremony. "I came here today, hoping that all of you will understand this."

Among the participants were family members of Brissette and Ralph Neal, another of the 12 U.S. victims.

"I am happy (to see Mori again), "I am emotional," Susan Archinski, 58, a niece of Brissette, who met with him when she visited Japan in 2015, told reporters before the ceremony.

Mori "dedicated his whole life" to find families of the victims, Archinski said, adding, "That makes me believe that we should never have an atomic war."

Filmmaker Barry Frechette, who is accompanying Mori on his ongoing U.S. tour, said people in the United States need to understand that Mori "has done a lot" for U.S. veterans and their families. "What he is doing is...selfless."

Hiroshima was devastated by the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing in the closing days of World War II.

Mori's activities have been praised by the U.S. government. In May 2016, then U.S. President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima and gave Mori a hug. The embrace was featured in news media across the world.

Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in either Hiroshima or the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki, which was also destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb, on Aug. 9, 1945. Jiji Press