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Tsutomu Yamaguchi (山口 彊, Yamaguchi Tsutomu) (16 March 1916 – 4 January 2010) was a Japanese marine engineer who survived and witnessed both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II.

Although at least 160 people are known to have been affected by both bombings, he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both explosions. A resident of Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business for his employer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when the city was bombed at 8:15 AM, on 6 August 1945. He returned to Nagasaki the following day and, despite his wounds, returned to work on 9 August, the day of the second atomic bombing. That morning, while he was being told by his supervisor that he was "crazy" after describing how one bomb had destroyed the city, the Nagasaki bomb detonated. In 1957, he was recognized as a hibakusha ("explosion-affected person") of the Nagasaki bombing, but was not officially recognized as a survivor of Hiroshima by the Japanese government until 24 March 2009. He died of stomach cancer on 4 January 2010, at the age of 93.

Yamaguchi was born on 16 March 1916 in Nagasaki.

Yamaguchi said he "never thought Japan should start a war".

Yamaguchi lived and worked in Nagasaki, but in the summer of 1945 he was in Hiroshima for a three-month-long business trip.

At 11:00 a.m. on 9 August 1945, Yamaguchi was describing the blast in Hiroshima to his supervisor, when the American bomber Bockscar dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb over the city.

During the Allied occupation of Japan, Yamaguchi worked as a translator for the occupation forces. When the Japanese government officially recognized atomic bombing survivors as hibakusha in 1957, Yamaguchi's identification stated only that he had been present at Nagasaki. In his eighties, he wrote a book about his experiences, Ikasareteiru inochi (A Life Well-Lived), as well as a book of poetry, and was invited to take part in a 2006 documentary about 165 double A-bomb survivors (known as nijū hibakusha in Japan) called Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was screened at the United Nations. On 22 December 2009, Canadian film director James Cameron and author Charles Pellegrino met Yamaguchi while he was in a hospital in Nagasaki and discussed the idea of making a film about nuclear weapons. "I think it's Cameron's and Pellegrino's destiny to make a film about nuclear weapons", Yamaguchi said.

This was accepted by the Japanese government in March 2009, making Yamaguchi the only person officially recognized as a survivor of both bombings.

Yamaguchi's wife, also a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, died in 2008 at the age of eighty-eight; her cause of death was liver and kidney cancer, likely related to health complications from the atomic bombing that she had experienced her entire life. At the time of her death, Yamaguchi was living with his daughter Toshiko in Nagasaki.

Yamaguchi lost hearing in his left ear as a result of the Hiroshima explosion. He also went bald temporarily and his daughter recalls that until she was the age of 12 Yamaguchi was constantly wrapped in bandages. Despite this, Yamaguchi went on to lead a healthy life. His wife also suffered radiation poisoning from black rain exposure after the Nagasaki explosion and died in 2008 at the age of eighty-eight of kidney and liver cancer.

In 2009, Yamaguchi learned that he was dying of stomach cancer. He died on 4 January 2010, in Nagasaki at the age of 93.

On 17 December 2010, the BBC featured Yamaguchi in its comedy programme QI, referring to him as "The Unluckiest Man in the World".

YAMAGUCHI, Tsutomu "Double A-Bomb Victim: My Life beneath the Atomic Clouds" 2007

Quick Facts

• A resident of Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business for his employer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when the city was bombed at 8:15 AM, on 6 August 1945.
• In 1957, he was recognized as a hibakusha ("explosion-affected person") of the Nagasaki bombing, but was not officially recognized as a survivor of Hiroshima by the Japanese government until 24 March 2009.
• He returned to Nagasaki the following day and, despite his wounds, returned to work on 9 August, the day of the second atomic bombing.
• That morning, while he was being told by his supervisor that he was "crazy" after describing how one bomb had destroyed the city, the Nagasaki bomb detonated.
• YAMAGUCHI, Tsutomu "Double A-Bomb Victim: My Life beneath the Atomic Clouds" 2007

Source material: Wikipedia - "Tsutomu Yamaguchi". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.