TRIBUTES have been paid to Hiroshima survivor Sunao Tsuboi, who became a lifelong campaigner against nuclear weapons and has died aged 96.

Mr Tsuboi died on Sunday in a hospital in the same city where, aged 20, he miraculously survived the US atomic bombing of August 6 1945.

He was unconscious for 40 days, suffered serious burns and lost part of an ear in the bombing.

On returning to consciousness he was so weak and scarred he had to practise crawling on the floor before beginning to recover.

The world’s first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people instantly and within months.

Three days later the US dropped a second atom bomb on Nagasaki, killing 70,000. No other country has ever used nuclear weapons.

The bombing “was about annihilation,” Mr Tsuboi said, but he became a prominent peace campaigner known across Japan for his motto “Never give up.”

When the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force at the beginning of this year, he said he was “filled with excitement” but condemned nuclear powers and Japan itself for refusing to ratify the agreement.

Akira Kawasaki of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said it would be hard to replace the campaigner nicknamed “Pikadon Sensei” (the Atom-Blast Teacher) for his tireless education of the young about the horrors of nuclear weapons.

“We must not only mourn the death of a great leader for our cause, but we must also continue in his path, undeterred, and always remember his words,” he said.