Shigeko Sasamori

Shigeko Sasamori (笹森恵子; née Niimoto; June 16, 1932 – December 15, 2024) was a Japanese peace and anti-nuclear activist. After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 left her with severe burn injuries throughout her body, she helped found a support group for other young women who had survived the bombing alongside Methodist minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto in 1951. In 1955, as one of the 25 Hiroshima Maidens, she traveled to the United States to receive reconstructive surgery, which restored much of her face and improved her manual dexterity. While there, she formed a close relationship with Norman Cousins, the editor of the Saturday Review of Literature.

After her surgeries, with Cousins's support, Sasamori lived in the United States for most of her life. She worked in various nursing and care-related positions throughout the country, including as a live-in nurse for the photographer Margaret Bourke-White. Later in life, she became active in the renewed anti-nuclear movement that grew to prominence during the late 1970s and early 1980s, addressing audiences about the impacts of nuclear war. She appeared in the documentary White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2007 and was active with the Hibakusha Stories project. She died in Marina del Rey, California, at the age of 92.