Postman who survived Nagasaki atomic bomb spent life campaigning for disarmament
Pictures of Sumiteru Taniguchi recovering in hospital, his entire back an agonising slab of melted flesh, were beamed around the world
Prominent nuclear disarmament campaigner Sumiteru Taniguchi, who was delivering mail in Nagasaki when the United States dropped an atomic bomb in 1945, died Wednesday at the age of 88.
Taniguchi, once considered a front-runner for the Nobel Peace Prize, died of cancer at a hospital in the southwestern Japanese city, according to Nihon Hidankyo, a group that represents survivors of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
The then-postman, aged only 16 when the attack happened in the closing days of the second world war, suffered horrific burns to his back and left arm that took years to heal properly.
He had been riding his bicycle some 1.8 kilometres from the epicentre of the blast.
“All of a sudden, after seeing a rainbow-like light from the back, I was blown by a powerful blast and smashed to the ground,” he said at a commemoration ceremony for the Nagasaki bombing in 2015.
“When I woke up, the skin of my left arm from the shoulder to the tip of my fingers was trailing like a rag. I put my hand to my back and found my clothing was gone, and there was slimy, burnt skin all over my hand.
