Noboru Iwamura, a physician who for 18 years offered medical services for the sick of Nepal, died Sunday of acute respiratory failure at a Hyogo Prefecture hospital, his family said. He was 78.
Iwamura, a former professor at Kobe University School of Medicine, was awarded the 1993 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding for his overseas service.
Iwamura and his wife, Fumiko, traveled to Nepal in 1962 to treat sufferers of tuberculosis and other illnesses and provide literacy education to local people.
Iwamura, a native of Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, as an 18-year-old student. He was only 1.2 km from the epicenter.
He was said to have decided to spend his career in the medical field because of this experience.