Tsutomu Yamaguchi: The atomic explosion prevented Tsutomu Yamaguchi from leaving Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. The 29-year-old naval engineer was in the city on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’s directive. It was Yamaguchi’s final day in the city following a three-month business journey to the prefecture.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the Man Who Withstood Two Atomic Bomb Blasts
When the bomb hit Hiroshima, Yamaguchi was preparing to finally go back to his family, his wife Hisako and their infant son Katsutoshi. Around 8:15 that morning, Yamaguchi spotted an American aircraft drop something on the city as he walked a final time in Mitsubishi’s shipyard.
As the object came down to the city, it erupted what Yamaguchi described looked like “the lightning of a huge magnesium flare.” To save himself, he had just enough time to dive into a ditch before an ear-splitting roar burst through the area. The shockwave took Yamaguchi and hurled him around in a tornado before dumping him in a potato patch.
Later, he told The Times, “I think I fainted for a while. When I opened my eyes, everything was dark, and I couldn’t see much. It was like the start of a film at the cinema before the picture has begun when the blank frames are just flashing up without any sound.” Yamaguchi’s face and arms had suffered severe burns and both his ears had been raptured.
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Yamaguchi Was Not The Bombing’s Only Survivor
When Yamaguchi regained consciousness, he returned to the shipyard and discovered two of his coworkers still alive: Akira Iwanaga and Kuniyoshi Sato. Following a night spent in an air raid shelter, the three men proceeded to the train station. Yamaguchi boarded a train to his homeland of Nagasaki after surviving hellish scenes on the journey to the station.
The day after returning home covered in bandages and wounded, Yamaguchi miraculously made it to the Mitsubishi office in Nagasaki. He encountered the company’s director, who demanded a comprehensive report on the Hiroshima incidents.
While Yamaguchi was describing what he saw to the director, who scarcely believed him, the landscape outside the office was suddenly illuminated by iridescent light. As the shockwaves shattered the office windows, Yamaguchi collapsed to the ground. The male had been exposed to cancer-causing radiation for the second time within three days.
His Wife And Son Survived The Bombing Miraculously.
As he anticipated the worst, the injured man made his way home to check on his wife and son. When Yamaguchi returned home, he discovered that his wife and son were both alive, albeit with superficial injuries. She and the infant sought refuge in a tunnel while searching for Yamaguchi’s burn salve.
In the days that followed, Yamaguchi experienced severe hair loss and incessant vomiting due to the radiation. Nonetheless, unlike so many other victims, Yamaguchi survived. He and his wife had two additional children. Later, in 2006, he traveled to New York to speak about nuclear disarmament before the United Nations. He stated at the United Nations, “Having survived two atomic bombings, it is my destiny to speak about it.”
