He Survived Two Nuclear Bombs

 

His name was Tsutomu Yamaguchi and he survived the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. But Mr Yamaguchi went on to have a long life, dying at the age of 93 in 2010.

Yamaguchi both lived and worked in Nagasaki, but in the summer of 1945, towards the end of World War II, he had been living in Hiroshima for three months, for business.

It was August 6 and Mr Yamaguchi was ready to go home to Nagasaki, when he realised that he had forgotten his hanko stamp, which he needed in order to travel. So he jumped off the bus on which he was travelling and he went back to collect his stamp.

Japenese hanko stamp

Mr Yamaguchi took another bus and then jumped off to walk to the Mitsubishi Shipyard, where he would meet colleagues before returning home by bus. The day was clear he said when he noticed the sound of a plane. Then a B-29 came into sight and dropped what appeared to be two parachutes.

There was a blinding flash and Tsutomu Yamaguchi was blown off his feet.

Little boy atomic bomb

As it turned out, this plane was the American bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb, only 3 km away from where Mr Yamaguchi had been walking.

All about Mr Yamaguchi it was dark, with great clouds of ash, as he lay on the ground. His eardrums had been ruptured, he was temporarily blinded and he had severe burns on the left top half of his body. All about him were burned corpses, but Yamaguchi got up and decided to make for the train station and go home to Nagasaki.

Mr Yamaguchi returned to his hometown of Nagasaki and after he received medical attention he returned to work on August 9.

It was 11 am on August 9, when Mr. Yamaguchi was was describing his experience during the Hiroshima bombing that another bomb called Fat Man was dropped by the American bomber Bockscar, on Nagasaki.

Mr. Yamaguchi was to experience severe radiation poisoning and sudden balding this time. Even worse, the ricocheting gamma rays may have damaged his DNA, which would likely bring effects to multiple generations.  

However, Mr Yamaguchi, who had been through two nuclear explosions and his wife who had been blasted by one, went on the have three children and a pretty satisfactory life.

The patient's skin is burned in a pattern corresponding to the dark portions of a kimono worn at the time of the explosion. Japan, circa 1945

His son, Kasutoshi, died of cancer at age 58, Mrs. Yamaguchi died of cancer at age 88.

Mr. Yamaguchi lived another 65 years after those two atom bombs, dying in 2010 at the age of 93.

So far, there is no real evidence that those who survived the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were exposed to substantial amounts of radiation and who went on to have children, had any higher incidence of congenital abnormalities than the Japanese average.