He was born in Hiroshima City. In his third year at the former Hiroshima Prefectural First Middle School, he was exposed to the atomic bomb. In 1959, he completed graduate studies at the Graduate School of Economics at Hitotsubashi University, where he studied under Kazushi Ohkawa.
After serving as a teacher at a Tokyo metropolitan high school, he became a faculty member at Yamanashi University in 1965. He held positions such as Dean of the Faculty of Education at Yamanashi University, President of Yamanashi University (1992–98), and representative committee member of Nihon Hidankyo (1981–2000). He was also the chairman of the Tokyo Confederation of A-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Toyo-kai) and a special committee member of the Large-Scale Retail Store Council at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.[2]
In 1958, he was involved in founding the Association of A-Bomb Survivors in Kunitachi, Tokyo. From then on, he engaged in activities aiming to abolish nuclear weapons and establish a law for supporting A-bomb survivors based on national compensation.[3] In 1976, then a Secretary of Nihon Hidankyo, he "took part in the second people’s delegation to the U.N., along with several Hibakusha representatives from different parts of Japan. The delegation submitted “A Report to the U.N. Secretary General: the Damage and Aftereffects from the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”, and requested the U.N. to hold an international symposium in Japan with the participation of experts, to explore the impact of the atomic bombing and the situation of surviving victims. This request was not met by the U.N., but in 1977, the “International Symposium on the Damage and After-effects of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was held by the U.N. Special NGO Committee for Disarmament."[4]
In 1988, he gave a speech at the NGO Day of the 3rd UN Special Session on Disarmament at the United Nations headquarters, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons while A-bomb survivors were still alive. In 1995, during the hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on whether the use of nuclear weapons violated international humanitarian law, he argued against the legality of nuclear weapons.[5]
Together with Tadao Ishida (Professor Emeritus at Hitotsubashi University) and Masaharu Hamaya (Professor Emeritus at Hitotsubashi University), he conducted research and analysis on the true nature of A-bomb damage from a sociological perspective. He pointed out that the atomic bomb brought about a "total collapse" of the body, life, and spirit for the survivors, influencing the ideological understanding of the A-bomb experience. In the field of economics, he specialized in economic policy and regional economics, mainly conducting statistical analyses of the regional economy in Yamanashi, and published papers and research reports.
His grandson, Kei Ito, is currently an artist in the United States, creating works that focus on nuclear issues, history, and memory in contemporary society.
