Atomic Bomb Survivors Grow Older, Fewer In Number
Japan's health and welfare ministry says nearly 9,000 survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died in the fiscal year which ended in March. The average age of living survivors is approaching 84.
Every year, the ministry surveys people who are officially recognized as "hibakusha," or victims of atomic bombings.
The ministry says 127,755 certified atomic bomb survivors were alive nationwide at the end of March.
The ministry says Hiroshima Prefecture was home to 57,807 survivors, down by 3,988 from the previous year. Nagasaki Prefecture had 33,243 survivors, down by 2,354.
The ministry says the average age of the living survivors was 83.94 years, up 0.63 from the previous year.
More than 40 percent of all survivors who were alive 10 years ago have passed away.
Survivors are growing older and fewer in number, posing a challenge of how to continue to pass on their first-hand accounts to younger generations. Another crucial issue is how to move toward realizing survivors' wish of having nuclear weapons abolished.