Yoshinao Shimamoto, a 61-year-old living in Kobe, always knew his parents had been exposed to the effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in the final stages of World War II on Aug. 6, 1945, but he never had the chance to discuss it with them in detail.
It was only after his mother died and his now 92-year-old father moved to a care facility that Shimamoto discovered his father's application for atomic-bomb survivor status at their family home in the city, complete with a detailed description of his experiences and the effect the weapon had on him.
"It was my first time finding a lot of this out," Shimamoto said. Aware of his identity as a child of two people who survived the bombing, he decided to find a way to share his father's story. In Japan, atomic-bomb survivors are known as hibakusha.