A man who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and went on to be an outspoken critic of nuclear weapons is dead at 96.
Sunao Tsuboi got to speak briefly with President Barack Obama in 2016 during his visit to Hiroshima.
“I was able to convey my thoughts,” he said to the BBC about the one-minute conversation when Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the city since the bombing.
According to the Daily News, Tsuboi died on October 24 due to an irregular heartbeat caused by anemia.
About 140,000 died in Hiroshima in the attack. He was just 20 at the time and recalled to the AFP how he ran naked for three hours trying to get away until he became too weak to walk.
When not speaking out against nuclear weapons, he taught math at Japanese schools.
“We must not only mourn the death of a great leader for our cause, but we must also continue in his path, undeterred, and always remember his words,” Akira Kawasaki of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons told Japanese public TV, according to the BBC.
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