Tsutomu Yamaguchi

1916–2010

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who has died at 93, was called both the luckiest man in the world and the unluckiest. On Aug. 6, 1945, he survived “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb that killed 140,000 people at Hiroshima. Three days later, in Nagasaki, he lived through its successor, “Fat Man,” which killed another 70,000. Although there were believed to be about 165 people who survived both blasts, Yamaguchi was the only one officially recognized by the Japanese government.

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Yamaguchi, a maritime engineer, almost wasn’t in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, said the London Daily Telegraph. “He was due to leave the next day, having completed a three-month assignment for the shipbuilding division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.” But at 8:15 a.m., he heard a single B-29. “It dropped two parachutes,” he later recalled. “Suddenly it was like a flash of magnesium, a great flash in the sky, and I was blown over.” Temporarily blinded, his hearing damaged, Yamaguchi suffered horrible burns on his face and arms. After stumbling through the carnage of Hiroshima, he was back in his home city of Nagasaki three days later.

“Reporting to work on Aug. 9, his story of a single bomb destroying an entire city was met with incredulity,” said the London Times. His boss was angry, Yamaguchi remembered. “He said, ‘I think you’ve gone a little mad.’ At that moment, outside the window, I saw another flash and the whole office was blown over. The same white light filled the room. I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me from Hiroshima.” Although Yamaguchi was again knocked unconscious, he was otherwise unhurt. “The next thing he remembered was waking from a delirium to hear crying and cheering at the broadcast announcing Japan’s surrender.”

Not until 2005, the 60th anniversary of the bombings, did Yamaguchi begin to speak openly of his experiences and campaign against nuclear weapons, addressing the United Nations the following year. Last month, as he lay dying of stomach cancer likely caused by atomic radiation, director James Cameron visited him, telling him that he hoped to make a movie about the bombs. Yamaguchi encouraged him, saying, “Please pass on my experience to future generations.”