1. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a Japanese marine engineer who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II.
18 Facts About Tsutomu Yamaguchi
1. 2.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi died of stomach cancer on 4 January 2010, at the age of 93.
3.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the 1930s and worked as a draftsman designing oil tankers.
4.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi said he "never thought Japan should start a war".
5.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi continued his work with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, but soon Japanese industry began to suffer heavily as resources became scarce and tankers were sunk.
6.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi lived and worked in Nagasaki, but in the summer of 1945 he was in Hiroshima for a three-month-long business trip.
7.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi recalls seeing the bomber and two small parachutes, before there was "a great flash in the sky, and I was blown over".
8.
At 11:00 am on 9 August 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was describing the blast in Hiroshima to his supervisor, when the American bomber Bockscar dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb over the city.
9.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi later returned to work for Mitsubishi designing oil tankers.
10.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was content with this, satisfied that he was relatively healthy, and put the experiences behind him.
11.
At first, Tsutomu Yamaguchi did not feel the need to draw attention to his double-survivor status.
12.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was married to his wife Hisako, and had three children.
13.
At the time of his death, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was living with his daughter Toshiko in Nagasaki.
14.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi lost hearing in his left ear as a result of the Hiroshima explosion.
15.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi went bald temporarily and his daughter recalls that he was constantly wrapped in bandages until she was 12.
16.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi's wife 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.
17.
In 2009, Tsutomu Yamaguchi learned that he was dying of stomach cancer.
18.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi died on 4 January 2010, in Nagasaki at the age of 93.