Fifth Anniversary of the Committee Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai

It was March 23, 2021, when the Committee Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai was founded. Five years have passed and, as required by the statute, the assembly of founding members met on March 19 to elect the members of the new Board of Directors. The assembly decided to continue with a Board made up of three members (the statute allows three or five) and confirmed the members of the previous term: Paola Marenco, Gabriele Di Comite, and Massimo Morelli.

On April 14, the Board of Directors met and confirmed the following roles:

President: Gabriele Di Comite
Vice President: Paola Marenco
General Secretary: Massimo Morelli

GABRIELE DI COMITE
Gabriele Di Comite, born in Bari on December 7, 1975, is an immunologist who has been living and working in Tokyo for seven years. Since his youth, he has been interested in Japanese history and culture. He discovered Takashi and Midori Nagai in 2017 through the book Peace on Nagasaki by Paul Glynn. Their witness of faith, hope, and charity had a deep impact on his life, leading him to organize the 2019 exhibition at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in Rimini and, in 2021, to found the Committee Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai, of which he has been president since then. He has translated several works of Takashi Nagai from Japanese into Italian and is the author of a book on the history of Christianity in Japan.

PAOLA MARENCO
Paola Marenco, born on December 7, 1951, is a hematologist. Since discovering the story of the Nagai couple in 2017, she strongly wanted to share it, leading to the creation of an exhibition at the 2019 Meeting in Rimini with a group of friends. This experience later led to the foundation of the Committee. In the following years, many meetings, presentations, and exhibitions around the world helped to reveal new and deep aspects of this story. Recently, she also contributed to translating texts from French, helping to spread this story further.

MASSIMO MORELLI
Massimo Morelli, born on January 13, 1956, is a director and author, and founder of the Committee. He contributed to the 2019 Rimini Meeting exhibition and recovered the film The Bells of Nagasaki from RAI archives. In 2019, he interviewed Paul Glynn and wrote the theatrical work Nagai. The Man Who Brought Peace to Nagasaki, performed across Italy. He has lived in Rome for over 40 years, where he manages the Committee’s communication. He also maintains relations with the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican.