November 5, 2015

A Nobel laureate in chemistry, Shimomura Osamu, on November 3 delivered a speech at a scientists’ international conference on the elimination of nuclear weapons expressing his hope that the world will be without wars and nuclear weapons.

At the 61st Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs which took place in Nagasaki for five days from November 1, Shimomura said that when an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, he was sixteen-year-old and working at a munitions factory in a city near Nagasaki. He also said that on that day he witnessed a U.S. bomber which he believes was used for the atomic bombing in the sky and that he saw many people working to recover victims’ remains in the city. “It was so shocking that it changed my view of life”, the 87-year-old chemist added.

Shimomura stated, “If Japan had surrendered two weeks earlier, the lives of a large number of people would have been saved. The atomic bombings were a result of the war. I want a world with neither war nor nuclear weapons.”

Past related article:
> Nobel prize-winners are reminder of the importance of state’s role in supporting basic research [October 10, 2008]