Senkichi Awaya

Senkichi Awaya
粟屋 仙吉
Mayor Awaya of Hiroshima
17th Mayors of Hiroshima
In office July 1943 – 6 August 1945
Monarch	Hirohito
Prime Minister	Hideki Tōjō Kuniaki Koiso Kantarō Suzuki
Preceded by	Wakami Fujita
Succeeded by	Shigetada Morishita
Personal details
Born	7 November 1893 Sendai
Died	6 August 1945 Hiroshima
Resting place	Tama Cemetery
Spouse(s)	Sachiyo Andō
Children	7
Alma mater	First Higher School
Religion	Christianity

Senkichi Awaya (粟屋 仙吉, Awaya Senkichi^?, 7 November 1893 – 6 August 1945) was a Japanese public official who was killed by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima while he was its mayor. He was one of the key figures in the historic clash between the Japanese police and the Imperial Japanese Army in 1933. He is also known for his Christian activity in the Nonchurch movement and close relationship with its early leaders.

Senkichi Awaya was born the second son of Eisuke Awaya (粟屋 頴祐, Awaya Eisuke^?), a railway bureaucrat and nephew of Viscount Inoue Masaru, in the city of Sendai, after which he was named. He spent his high school years in Yonago, Tottori and then entered the First Higher School, the preparatory division to the Imperial University of Tokyo, where he studied German law.

Eisuke had a drinking problem, over which his wife often went to seek help at a local Christian church with her children. Christianity therefore was the most familiar religion for Senkichi since his childhood. One day when he was a high school student, Senkichi was advised by his minister to read Kanzō Uchimura's The Biblical Studies, which impressed him and made him a devout Christian. Unlike his father, he grew up to be a teetotaler.