We deeply mourn the loss of Sr. Takashi Morita, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (Hibakusha) in 1945, who later emigrated to Brazil where he led efforts to help atomic bomb survivors abroad. Sr. Morita died on Monday, August 12, 2024 at the age of 100 in a hospital in São Paulo. In 2019, he received the Honorary Life Time Achievement Award of the 9th International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro for his tireless efforts in Brazil for a world without nuclear weapons and - since the Fukushima nuclear accident - also for a world without nuclear power.
79 years ago, Takashi Morita was a 21 years young military police officer in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb exploded. He was 1.3 kilometers away from the epicentre (ground zero) of the bomb, he writes in his 2017 published autobiographical book "The Last Message from Hiroshima: What I Saw and How I Survived the Atomic Bomb" (A Última Mensagem de Hiroshima: O que Vi e Como Sobrevivi à Bomba Atômica).
Morita emigrated to Brazil in 1956 at the age of 32 with his wife and two children, he recounts in the book. However, after he arrived in Brazil the Japanese government stopped providing him with health care benefits under the atomic bomb survivors' support law. One of the reasons why he later in 1984 founded the "Associação das Vítimas da Bomba Atômica no Brasil" in São Paulo representing the approximately 100 Hibakusha living in Brazil, and filed a lawsuit against the Japanese Government demanding the same level of medical support for atomic bomb survivors living overseas as in Japan. Finally, starting in 2019 the Hibakusha outside Japan began receiving health insurance benefits from the Government.
Since 2012, Sr. Morita has participated several times as a speaker and guest of honor at the International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, sharing his story and messages with hundreds of students and festival audiences in an unforgettably entertaining way.
An important documentary about Morita is the short film "O Sr. Morita" by Roberto Fernández, completed in 2016. The Argentinian filmmaker living in São Paulo has dedicated his work to rescuing and telling the strories of the "Brazilian" Hibakusha and has accompanied them for many years. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/179966640
Rest in peace, Senhor Morita. May the world never forget you, as we will never forget you.
