In 1990, the mayor of Nagasaki became what is likely the last casualty of World War II.

Or more precisely, Hitoshi Motoshima became a casualty of the heated debate still raging over Japan's role in the war.

A high-profile advocate of worldwide peace, Motoshima has compared the atomic bombing of his city to Nazi Germany's slaughter of the Jews in the Holocaust.

"The indiscriminate slaughter caused by the atomic bombings was a breach of international law absolutely inexcusable from the standpoint of humanity," he wrote in 1993.

But in 1988, Motoshima also charged that the late Emperor Hirohito held some responsibility for starting World War II - an unpopular view with mainstream Japan.

"Without deep reflection on Japan's history of aggression in Asia, however, our cries for nuclear disarmament will not reach the ears of the world," he wrote.

He received death threats for criticizing Hirohito and became Nagasaki's first mayor to need police protection.

Shortly after that protection ended, a right-wing radical shot Motoshima in the back as he entered a car at Nagasaki's City Hall. The bullet hit a lung and barely missed his heart.

Motoshima recovered, but refused to retract his remarks.

He declined to be interviewed by Herald reporters in Nagasaki in April, citing his campaign for his fifth four-year term as the city's mayor.

It turned out to be a losing effort, as Motoshima, 73, lost to 49-year-old Itcho Ito, who won with an overwhelming 106,000 votes to Motoshima's 61,000.

Perhaps the campaign was healing. Ito had stressed the fact he was born after World War II, and charged Motoshima had concentrated too much on the past and not enough on the city's current problems.