As incredible as it may seem, there is a person who is survived not to one but to two atomic bombs: that of Hiroshima and that of Nagasakidropped by the US Air Force in August 1945 at the end of World War II. We are talking about Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916-2010), a Japanese engineer who at the age of 29 was in both cities on the respective days they were bombed, managing to survive on both occasions. The man, who died of stomach cancer in 2010 at the age of 93 years oldspent the rest of his life telling this story to the new generationshoping to be able to convey the deep horror of war and for the construction of such devastating nuclear weaponsBut why was Yamaguchi in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in that distant August of 1945?
Tsutomu Yamaguchi and the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima: How He Survived
Tsutomu Yamaguchi He was a Japanese engineer of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. On that 6th August 1945, when he was almost thirty years old, he was in Hiroshima for a business trip and he would never have expected an attack of that proportion on the city: at 8:14 the bomber B-29 detonated “Little Boy“, the first atomic bomb ever used on civilians.
At the time of the explosion Yamaguchi was located approximately 3 km away but the power of the explosion was such that throw him out of the tram on which he was standing. Fortunately, according to what is said in his biography, he had the presence of mind to throw himself into a nearby canal, protecting his face with his hands. This allowed him to reduce the amount of damage, although he still remained temporarily blinded, had serious damage to the eardrum of the left ear and found himself burns in various parts of the body. The next morning, wound but not in danger of lifehe decided to immediately take a train back home: as fate would have it, his hometown was precisely Nagasaki.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi and the atomic bomb on Nagasaki
Upon returning to Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was convinced that the worst was over. He recovered quickly and was back at work two days later: the August 9th in fact he was in the office talking to his boss about how lucky he was to survive such a tragic event. What he didn’t expect was that on that same day he would have to relive that tragedy. At 11:02 in fact the United States dropped the second nuclear weapon in their arsenal, Fat Man, over Nagasaki, causing tens of thousands of deaths and devastation.
Ironically, Yamaguchi was also about 3 km from the bomb and the explosion shattered the windows of the building, knocking him to the ground. As happened in Hiroshima, he was seriously injured but still alive, also thanks to the sturdy structure of the building and the hilly landscape: the combination of these two factors seems to have slightly dampened the power of the weapon, allowing Yamaguchi to survive. These were the words of the former engineer a few years later:
I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me from Hiroshima. I can’t understand why the world can’t understand the agony of nuclear bombs. How can they continue to develop these weapons?
The only known survivor of two nuclear explosions
After surviving both explosions and recovering from both burns and radiation poisoning, Yamaguchi took up service as naval engineer in the city’s port and told his story to almost no one. That was, at least, until 2005 when his son – also a Nagasaki survivor – died of cancer at the age of 59: the event deeply shocked him, convincing him to open up in the hope that his words could be an inspiration for future generations.
My double exposure to radiation is now an official government document. It will be able to tell the horrible story of the atomic bombings to future generations even after my death.
The Japanese have a word for survivors of one of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki: hibakusha. Yamaguchi was actually a niju hibakushathat is, survived both bombings. In reality Yamaguchi He was not the only one to survive both explosions: according to some reports there would have been at least 160 other people in his same situation, even though none of them would have lived long enough for the Government to “confirm” their story, leaving the engineer with the sad record of sole survivor of two nuclear explosions.
