Kiyoshi Tanimoto Dies; Led Hiroshima Victims

The Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, an American-educated Methodist minister who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then led a movement on behalf if its victims, died today of pneumonia complicated by kidney failure, relatives reported. He was 77 years old.

Mr. Tanimoto died at a hospital in Hiroshima, said his daughter Koko.

He had lectured extensively in the United States about the bomb's effects and about the victims of the American attack on Aug. 6, 1945. Almost 130,000 people were killed, wounded or missing.

Mr. Tanimoto was born in Kagawa prefecture in western Japan. He attended schools in the United States and received a degree in theology in 1940 from Emory University in Atlanta. He then became a pastor in Hiroshima.

He was a figure in John Hersey's book ''Hiroshima,'' and in 1948 the American Methodist Church invited him to the United States to speak about the bombing. He gave 582 lectures before returning to Japan in 1950.

In 1955, Mr. Tanimoto led a group of 25 young women disfigured by the bombing to the United States for surgery at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital.

He continued his anti-nuclear activities and served as the minister of several churches before retiring in 1982.

Mr. Tanimoto is survived by his wife, Chisa, two sons and three daughters.