Survivor Of Two Blasts Dies

The death occurred just over a week ago of a quite remarkable man. Not so much remarkable for what he achieved but because of what he lived through. The man was Tsutomu Yamaguchi who died on the 4th of January this year at the age of 93. What was remarkable about this man was that he was one of the few people who experienced and lived through both of the atomic bombs that were dropped and exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

An employee of giant Japanese firm Mitsubishi, he had been working in the city of Hiroshima and was about to leave when the Americans dropped the first bomb on August 6th 1945. He was three kilometres away from the centre of the blast but despite losing his hearing with ruptured eardrums, being temporarily blinded and badly burnt he managed to make his way to Nagasaki which was his home town.

He was based there and went into work on the morning of August 9th 1945. As he was travelling he was conscious of an intense flash which was the explosion of the second atomic bomb dropped over Nagasaki. Once again Tsutomu was only three kilometres from the epicenter of the blast but survived.

Initially he was only officially recognised as a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing and went on to become a teacher. He applied to the Japanese government for recognition as a survivor of the Hiroshima blast as well, as recently as January last year. This he was granted in March 2009 making him the only person officially recognised as being a victim of both bombs.

Tsutomu died of stomach cancer but it was unclear whether it was directly linked to his exposures to the two nuclear blasts.