Koko Kondo

Who is Koko Kondo?

Koko Kondo, birth name Koko Tanimoto, is a prominent Atomic Bomb survivor, and is the daughter of Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Methodist minister famous for his work for the Hiroshima Maidens. Both appear in John Hersey's book, Hiroshima.

In 1955, both appeared on the popular television program This Is Your Life where they were placed in the uncomfortable position of meeting with Captain Robert A. Lewis, copilot of the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The video of this episode is available online.

Kondo has espoused global peace in such places as Iraq, and speaks frequently at American University in Washington, D.C., her alma mater. Kondo regularly accompanies both Japanese and international students, mostly Americans, from her alma mater, on a peace study tour throughout Japan focusing on the Atomic Bomb.

When she was living in the United States, she lived with Nobel Prize winner, Pearl Buck, who greatly influenced her personal work with Japanese orphans.