Hideto Sotobayashi
Hideto Sotobayashi ( Japanese 外 林 秀 人 , Sotobayashi Hideto ; born November 1, 1929 in Nagasaki ; † December 28, 2011 in Berlin ) was a Japanese chemist and Hiroshima survivor living in Germany . For a long time he researched as a scientist at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society.
Life
Sotobayashi was attending school on August 6, 1945 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima . After the explosion, he was able to free himself from the rubble of the school largely unharmed and also save his friend, who, however, did not survive the disaster. Immediately afterwards, he went to the center of the explosion to look for a guest of the family, whom he could only rescue dead. He experienced the dire, direct effects of the atomic explosion on people directly, including on his own body. His mother died from the ionizing radiation dose three days after the bomb was dropped.
For a long time Sotobayashi was silent about his experiences out of consideration for his relatives, since the Hiroshima survivors ( Hibakusha ) are "socially ostracized" in Japan. Only since 2007 has he been reporting on his experiences and the convictions he has gained from them in many public lectures and in front of school classes. He was interviewed by numerous media and turned against the use of atomic energy, especially in the military, but also in the industrial sector, emphasizing the freedom of basic research and calling for a rational approach to the effects of atomic radiation. Sotobayashi lived in Berlin since 1965 .
From 1985 to 2008 Sotobayashi was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Japanese-German Center Berlin .
Web links
- Literature by and about Hideto Sotobayashi in the catalog of the German National Library
- Report from "Das Erste" about Sotobayashi ( Memento from August 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Report of the South Germans
- Report of the "daily newspaper" (taz) about Sotobayashi
- Article in "Der Spiegel"
- Jiji Tsūshin : Report on Sotobayashi's honorary citizenship in Potsdam
- Interview after the Fukushima disaster
- Der Tagesspiegel: Obituary
Individual evidence
- ↑ OBITUARY: Hiroshima victims died ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Sotobayashi's resignation from the JDZB's Board of Trustees
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sotobayashi, Hideto |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 外 林秀 人 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese chemist and Hiroshima survivor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nagasaki |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 28, 2011 |
| Place of death | Berlin |