Advocate for atomic-blast survivors dies

CULVER CITY, Calif., Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Dr. Mitsuo Inouye, a Culver City, Calif., physician who assisted U.S. survivors of the World War II atomic bomb blasts in Japan, died at at 82.

The California native led efforts in the 1970s to bring Japanese radiation experts to the United States to examine Americans of Japanese ancestry who survived the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Los Angeles Times said.

He also urged aid for the estimated 1,000 survivors, who suffered from higher rates of cancer than the general population, when he testified before a congressional subcommittee in 1978, the Times said.

Inouye died Dec. 15 in Culver City, of complications related to renal failure, his son, Jim, told the Times.