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On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., Tanimoto was at the western edge of Hiroshima helping a friend move furniture. In late 1944 they gave birth to their first and only daughter, Koko. In 1942 he married and in 1943 he and his wife, Chisa, relocated to Hiroshima, where Tanimoto became the minister of Nagarekawa United Church of Christ. Despite the outbreak of war, Tanimoto continued to serve his new church rather than serving in the military. He returned to Japan just prior to the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor to work at Central Methodist Church in Okinawa. His first placement was at the Hollywood Independent Church, a Japanese American church in Los Angeles, California. In 1940 he graduated from Candler with a bachelor of theology degree and became an ordained Methodist minister. In 1937, with the assistance of Methodist church members in Japan and Korea, he received a scholarship to Candler School of Theology at Emory University.Ī dedicated and involved student, Tanimoto made many lifelong friends at Emory. He met with Methodist ministers in Japan and studied Christianity at Kwansei Gakuin University. Her death was very traumatic for Tanimoto, and convinced him to become a Methodist minister.
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Soon after the trip, his mother died unexpectedly. Following his graduation from secondary school, Tanimoto traveled to Korea to visit his older brother and was introduced to Methodism there through an American missionary. Tanimoto was born on June 27, 1909, in Sakaide City, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. For Candler alumnus Kiyoshi Tanimoto 40T 86H (1909-1986), that day would forever alter the course of his life. August 6, 2015, marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.