A man's life alone cannot represent the Showa Era in its entirety, but Susumu Iida's serves to underscore many of its harsh legacies.

Iida, 86, lived through the hell of the Pacific War, saw his fellow soldiers starve in New Guinea and spent almost six years in Tokyo's Sugamo Prison as a Class B/C war criminal.

After his release, Iida married a hibakusha. She later gave birth to a boy with birth defects from the sedative thalidomide that she took during her pregnancy, prompting Iida to organize what would become the first successful lawsuit against the government over a drug-induced disaster.