Late philosopher and Hiroshima A-bomb survivor staged over 500 sit-ins against nuclear weapons

The Mainichi

23-07-2025

HIROSHIMA -- Every time a nuclear test was conducted abroad, Ichiro Moritaki (1901-1994) staged a sit-in in front of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima's Naka Ward. The philosopher devoted half his life to A-bomb survivors' movements and campaigns against atomic and hydrogen bombs, earning him the moniker "the father of anti-nuclear movements."
"Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist," Moritaki said, and his words still serve as a driving force for people campaigning for nuclear weapons abolition today. His iconic style of sitting quietly, clad in a shirt and tie with his back straight, was full of dignity.
"He told me he was staging sit-ins with his back against the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims because he was carrying the souls of A-bomb victims who passed away on his back. However, what my father and others had appealed for has not been made a reality," Moritaki's second daughter Haruko, an 86-year-old resident in Hiroshima's Saeki Ward, told the Mainichi Shimbun.
Until his later years, Moritaki urged for the principles of "absolute denial of the nuclear" -- rejecting not only the military use of atomic power such as in nuclear weapons, but also its peaceful use like in nuclear power generation. To date, his philosophy has remained far from being realized. Nihon Hidankyo, formally the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, for which Moritaki served as the first chairperson, has persistently called for government compensation for A-bomb victims, but this has not yet come about.
On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Moritaki, then a professor at Hiroshima Koto Shihan Gakko (present-day Hiroshima University), was exposed to the atomic bomb about 4 kilometers from the hypocenter while leading a group of students mobilized for wartime labor services at a shipyard in Hiroshima's Ebamachi district (now part of Naka Ward). Shards of glass scattered by the blast pierced his right eye, causing him to lose sight in it.
Haruko remembers an unforgettable experience. When she traveled from the location to which she had evacuated to the barracks where her father was living after the bombing, Haruko found a pure white skull in a river nearby. "It was small enough to fit in my palm, and even as young as I was, I could sense that it was from a baby who died in the atomic bombing. When I handed it to my father, he wept bitterly as he held it close to him."
While teaching at Hiroshima University, Moritaki was also involved in a drive to provide psychological and economic support to children orphaned by the atomic bombing. As part of the campaign, Haruko also recalls sharing hot pot dishes with the orphans. "He was called 'dad' by those children," she reflected.
Moritaki worked hard to establish Nihon Hidankyo in 1956 and became its first chairperson. At the ninth World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs held in 1963, the movement split due to fierce disagreements between supporters of the contemporary Socialist Party and the Japanese Communist Party over the then Soviet Union's resumption of nuclear testing. In his keynote speech, Moritaki emphasized that he was absolutely against any nuclear testing by any country and all forms of nuclear armament, but jeers and roars filled the venue, and some were even injured in the commotion.
In April 1962, Moritaki staged a sit-in protest in front of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims against the resumption of nuclear tests by the United States and the Soviet Union. He submitted his resignation to the university he taught at, fully committing himself to the protest, which lasted 12 days. His action marked the beginning of a tradition in Hiroshima of staging sit-ins before the cenotaph each time nuclear testing was conducted.
"Even shortly before his passing, he told me from his sickbed, 'Haruko, you've got to go today. There is a sit-in,'" Haruko recalled. Over the course of his life, Moritaki took part in more than 500 sit-ins.
At its inaugural convention, Nihon Hidankyo affirmed the peaceful use of nuclear power in a declaration which Moritaki himself drafted. After meeting residents of uranium mining areas across the world and scientists opposed to nuclear power, however, Moritaki revamped his views and advocated "absolute denial of the nuclear" at the 1975 World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.
In the mid-1980s, Moritaki underwent surgery for a cataract caused by radiation exposure. Not only did he lose his right eyesight to the atomic bombing, but his left eyesight was at risk of the same fate. Both his vision and his resolve apparently cleared after the surgery, further deepening his solidarity with nuclear victims around the world.
Haruko, who accompanied her father in his activism, now serves as co-representative of the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA). She is currently busy preparing for the World Nuclear Victims Forum, to be held in Hiroshima this October. The conference will invite victims of uranium mining, nuclear testing and nuclear accidents from around the world and seek to form an international network to abolish nuclear weapons and provide relief to nuclear victims.
In her father's final years, Haruko was diagnosed with cancer, and she continues her activities while receiving treatment. "'Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist' is the will of my respected father -- and of course, it is my own as well," she told the Mainichi Shimbun.