History
The man whom death sought twice
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese engineer, was in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, on a business trip, less than three kilometres from the explosion of the first atomic bomb. He miraculously survived and returned wounded to Nagasaki to his wife and son. Three days later, while recounting the event to his superiors, the second atomic bomb exploded over his city. Yamaguchi was the only man officially recognised as a survivor of both bombings. For nearly sixty years he carried this burden in silence, until his son’s death from radiation-induced cancer pushed him to speak. He dedicated his final years to testifying against nuclear weapons, turning his atrocious fate into a message of peace.
