The world's luckiest man: survived two atomic bombs
Naval engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was working in the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. While World War II was raging in the Pacific, he was able to continue designing ships and oil tankers for the country.
Show key points
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima for work when the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city by the Enola Gay on August 6, 194
- Despite being only two miles from ground zero, Yamaguchi survived the explosion with severe burns and damaged eardrums.
- After the bombing, he navigated a devastated Hiroshima and managed to board a train to his hometown, Nagasaki.
- ADVERTISEMENT
- When he arrived home, his injuries were so severe that his own family barely recognized him.
- Shockingly, Yamaguchi was present in Nagasaki when the second atomic bomb was dropped just days later and survived again.
- Initially, his account of Hiroshima's devastation was met with disbelief by his superiors at work in Nagasaki.
- Yamaguchi lived until 2010, surviving radiation poisoning and later dedicating his life to promoting nuclear disarmament.
On August 6, 1945, after completing a three-month project and preparing to return home to see his wife and daughter, Yamaguchi noticed a plane flying over the area. Something fell from the plane, it was slowed down by a parachute, and this thing was an atomic bomb.
Yamaguchi jumped into a nearby trench when the bomb exploded in the sky, and the plane, named Enola Jay, which dropped the bomb, had targeted the city just two miles from where Yamaguchi was hiding. The explosion caused it to fly and spin in the air, landing in a nearby potato patch. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything, as the world was completely black.
Recommend
The nuclear explosion did not blind him, but instead blocked the sun with a huge cloud of dust. Yamaguchi's arms and face were badly burned and his eardrums were torn, and as the debris gradually disappeared, he saw a mushroom-like cloud towering over the city.
Getting home
The blast killed about 80,000 people instantly, but after meeting some of his fellow survivors at the Mitsubishi shipyard, Yamaguchi made his way toward a shelter from airstrikes. In the morning, he heard that the train station somehow survived and that people were rushing to it madly, hoping to escape the city.
Yamaguchi was still injured, and made his way through a city full of dilapidated buildings, fires and melted bodies in the streets. At one point, he had to swim across a river full of burned corpses. Yamaguchi eventually arrived on the train and settled there at night, transporting him to his hometown of Nagasaki.
Countdown
When Yamaguchi arrived home, not even his wife and daughter recognized the burning man standing in front of them. Yamaguchi's wife knew that her husband was in Hiroshima, and thought his bandaged body might be a ghost. After finally receiving medical care, he collapsed in bed all night.
The next morning, Yamaguchi returned to work like any other day, but his superiors sat him down to question him about the events in Hiroshima. Yamaguchi explained what he saw, but his superiors did not believe him, believing that it was impossible for a single bomb to cause so much destruction.
During this meeting the sky was lit up with fire again. The building was destroyed and Yamaguchi's bandages flew, but he survived again. Yamaguchi rushed home worried about his family, and thank God they were equally lucky.
Aftermath
Although Yamaguchi is the only officially recognized double survivor of atomic bombing, up to 165 people have experienced and suffered both atomic weapons firsthand. Although Yamaguchi suffered radiation poisoning, he survived until 2010, eventually becoming an outspoken advocate of nuclear disarmament.
