Yoshie Oka, who is believed to have given the first report of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, died of malignant lymphoma on May 19 at a hospital in the western Japan city, her family said Tuesday. She was 86.
Oka was 14 years old and working at a command center of the Imperial Japanese Army in the city when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of that year.
She communicated to a unit in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, "The city of Hiroshima is almost annihilated. We've been hit by a new type of bomb."
While suffering from various aftereffects of the bombing, she actively gave speeches to share her experience with others and call for peace.
