The man with Nine lives: Tsutomu Yamaguchi
If you really think you are lucky, then meet a Japanese man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi.
During World War 2, Yamaguchi was working as a marine engineer and he lived in Nagasaki, Japan.
HIROSHIMA BOMBING:
On the morning of 6th August 1945 when the Alied nations dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan, Yamaguchi was there!
The American bomber plane: Enola Gay had dropped the little boy atomic bomb about 3 Kilometers from where he was standing.
Although he had a ruptured eardrum, temporary blindness and some radiation burns, he was able to get up and move to an air raid shelter with his friends and then he travelled down to Nagasaki the next day.
NAGASAKI BOMBING:
On the morning of August 9, 1945, Yamaguchi had reported to work in Nagasaki and was narrating his ordeal of the Hiroshima bombing to a colleague when an American bomber plane named Bockscar, dropped the second atomic bomb named Fat Man over the city of Nagasaki.
Once again, he was about 3 Kilometers away from the site of the explosion but thankfully, he wasn’t hurt by the blast.
LATER YEARS:
Yamaguchi would later become a spokesperson against nuclear warfare.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi: “I can’t understand why the world cannot understand the agony of the nuclear bombs. How can they keep developing these weapons?”
Citation: Wikipedia
In 2009, Tsutomu Yamaguchi officially became the only person recognized by the Japanese government as a survivor of both bombings.
Although there were notably over 70 other persons that survived both bombings, Yamaguchi was the only officially recognized survivor.
On 4th January 2010, he died of stomach cancer. It is unclear wether the stomach cancer was due to the 1945 incidents.
In 2010, the BBC ventured into dark humour by featuring Yamaguchi in a comedy episode, referring to him as “the unluckiest man in the world”.
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