Araki Takeshi

Araki Takeshi (center) and Motoshima Hitoshi (r.) Meet the Lord Mayor of East Berlin Erhard Krack (l.)

Araki Takeshi ( Japanese 荒木 武 ; born March 4, 1916 in Misasa , Asa County (today: Hiroshima ), Hiroshima Prefecture ; † June 17, 1994 ) was a Japanese politician .

Takeshi Araki was born in what is now the West District of Hiroshima City in 1916 . After studying at the law faculty of the Imperial University of Tokyo , he worked for Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō . During the Second World War he worked in Nagasaki in the Urakami district until 1940 . At the time of the atomic bombing , he was in a factory in Hiroshima and survived. However, he fell ill with radiation sickness that same month .

In 1947 he became a member of the Hiroshima City Council, and in 1951 a member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Parliament, to which he served for three terms.

Araki was Mayor of Hiroshima from 1975 to 1991. During his tenure in 1980, the city of Hiroshima was upgraded to seirei shitei toshi , a “city by government decree”. He campaigned for the abolition of nuclear weapons . His appeals in this regard , held annually on August 6, received worldwide attention . On his initiative, the international organization Mayors for Peace was founded in 1982 .

Araki died in 1994 at the age of 78 years due to pneumonia .

Web links

• Takeshi Arakis memories of the atomic bombing on the occasion of its 40th anniversary

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Araki is the family name, Takeshi the first name.