TSUTOMU YAMAGUCHI – DOUBLE ATOMIC BOMB SURVIVOR

Tsutomu Yamaguchi (March 16, 1916 – January 4, 2010) was a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. Although at least 70 people are known to have been affected by both bombings, he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both explosions. HIROSHIMA BOMBING: Yamaguchi lived and worked in Nagasaki, but in the summer of 1945, he was in Hiroshima for a three-month long business trip. On August 6, he was preparing to leave the city and was on his way to the station when he realized that he had forgotten his travel papers. He returned to his workplace to retrieve them and at 8:15 as he was nearing his workplace the atomic bomb exploded 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) away. Yamaguchi recalls seeing the bomber and two small parachutes, before there was “a great flash in the sky, and I was blown over”. The explosion ruptured his eardrums, blinded him temporarily, and left him with serious burns over the left side of the top half of his body. He spent the night in an air-raid shelter before returning to Nagasaki the following day. In Nagasaki, he received treatment for his wounds, and despite being heavily bandaged, he reported for work on August 9. NAGASAKI BOMBING: At 11 a.m. on August 9, Yamaguchi was describing the blast in Hiroshima to his supervisor, when the atomic bomb exploded over the city. His workplace again put him 3 kilometers from ground zero, but this time he was unhurt by the explosion. However, he was unable to replace his now ruined bandages, and he suffered from high fever and continuous vomiting for over a week.  In 1957, he was recognized as a hibakusha (explosion-affected person) of the Nagasaki bombing, but it was not until March 24, 2009, that the government of Japan officially recognized his presence in Hiroshima three days earlier. He died of stomach cancer on January 4, 2010, at the age of 93.