One month after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, canna plants in the city defied all odds and began to bloom.
Yukiharu Yamasaki, the child of a hibakusha fighting to have the government recognize that his generation also suffers from the effects of radiation, is inspired by the picture of a canna plant on display in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
"Whenever I see the picture, I am encouraged. That flower is us," Yamasaki said.
He became chairman of the National Liaison Council of A-Bomb Survivors Second Generation Organizations in January.