was mayor of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

from October 22, 1945 to March 22, 1947 and was elected as member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly in 1911. Following the atomic attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, a period of political vacuum was created, as the city lay in ruins its mayor

Senkichi Awaya was a Japanese public official who was killed by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima while he was its mayor. He was one of the key figures in the historic clash between the Japanese police and the Imperial Japanese Army in 1933. He is also kn ...

was killed. Out of the 40 members of the city council, 8 were killed in the bombing and most living members were unable to attend sessions due to their injuries. In September 1945, the Hiroshima City Council held an emergency session where it decided to appoint Kihara as the new mayor, and following approval by the Ministry of Interior, he was inaugurated as mayor on October 22, 1945. As part of his policy of reconstruction, he established in January 1946 a separate department within Hiroshima municipality to make decisions on reconstruction without the need of city council approval and was officially titled ''Restoration Bureau'', consisting of 30 members and headed by former mayor

Wakami Fujita was mayor of Hiroshima from 1939 to 1943. He survived the atomic attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and continued working for the Hiroshima municipality until 1947, when the US authorities purged him from his duties. In January 1946, he wa ...

.''A-Bomb Mayor'', pp. 58-59 He remained mayor of Hiroshima until he was dismissed by the US occupation authorities as part of the purge of Japanese officials who took part in supporting the Japanese military during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Following his dismissal from office, he supported the policies of

Shinzo Hamai ''Shinzo'', known as in Japan, is an anime television series produced by TV Asahi, Toei Advertising, and Toei Animation. It was directed by Tetsuo Imazawa, with Mayori Sekijima handling series scripts, Sachiko Kamimura designing the charact ...

and kept working for him unofficially till his death.

Notes

References

, ''A-Bomb Mayor: Warnings and Hope from Hiroshima'' (Hiroshima, 2010) *

Robert Jungk Robert Jungk (; born ''Robert Baum'', also known as ''Robert Baum-Jungk''; 11 May 1913 – 14 July 1994) was an Austrian writer, journalist, historian and peace campaigner who wrote mostly on issues relating to nuclear weapons. Life Jungk was bor ...

, ''Children of the Ashes'' (1st English ed. 1961) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kihara, Shichiro Mayors of Hiroshima Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 1884 births 1951 deaths Politicians from Hiroshima Prefecture