Tsutomu Yamaguchi: the man who survived both atomic bombs

Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916 to 2010) was a Japanese marine engineer who worked for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. He was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first atomic bomb fell on 6 August 1945, and he was back in Nagasaki when the second fell on 9 August. The Japanese government recognized him in March 2009 as the only officially acknowledged survivor of both bombings. He died of stomach cancer on 4 January 2010, aged 93. [1] [2]

Yamaguchi was born in Nagasaki and worked as a draftsman designing oil tankers. In the summer of 1945 he spent three months in Hiroshima on business, and 6 August was meant to be his last day there. By one account he had gone back to his workplace to fetch his hanko, an identification stamp, and was walking toward the docks when the bomb exploded about 3 kilometres away. He recalled a great flash in the sky and being blown over. The New York Times gives a different detail, saying he was getting off a streetcar at the time. [1] [3] [2]

The blast ruptured his eardrums, temporarily blinded him and burned the upper left side of his body. He spent the night in an air-raid shelter with his colleagues and returned to Nagasaki the next day. Accounts differ slightly on the hearing damage: the ABC describes deafness in one eardrum. [1] [4]

Despite heavy bandaging, Yamaguchi reported to work on 9 August. Around 11 a.m. he was describing Hiroshima to his supervisor, who did not believe that one bomb could destroy a whole city, when the Nagasaki bomb detonated. He was again about 3 kilometres from ground zero. He told NHK he recognized it as an atomic bomb and hid under a desk. [1] [4]

This time he was largely unhurt. HISTORY reports that the hilly terrain and a reinforced stairwell muffled the blast in the office. His bandages were blown off, and he suffered a high fever and continuous vomiting for over a week. [3] [1]

In 1957 Yamaguchi was recognized as a hibakusha, an explosion-affected person, but his papers listed only Nagasaki. He did not at first seek attention for being a double survivor. In January 2009 he applied for double recognition, which the government accepted in March 2009, and Guinness World Records lists him as the first confirmed person to survive two nuclear attacks. He said the record could tell younger generations about the horror of the bombings after his death. His daughter said he had cataracts, deafness in one ear, leukopenia, 15 years of hair loss and burn after-effects. [1] [5] [4]

He was the only officially recognized one. Other people also experienced both attacks: Wikipedia says at least 160 are known, while ABC and HISTORY put the figure at about 165. These people are called nijyuu hibakusha, or twice-bombed people. About 650,000 people have been recognized as hibakusha overall. [1] [4] [3] [6]