Cutomu Yamaguchi is the only person officially recognized as a victim of both the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was born on March 16, 1916, in Nagasaki and worked as a shipbuilding engineer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

First Bomb: Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

At the age of 29, Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima when the American B-29 bomber dropped the \"Little Boy\" bomb. He was about 3 kilometers from the epicenter. The blast wave knocked him to the ground, he suffered severe burns to the upper part of his body, his eardrums burst, and he temporarily went blind. Yamaguchi spent the night in a bomb shelter and returned home to Nagasaki the next day.

Second Bomb: Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

Upon returning to Nagasaki, on August 9, Yamaguchi came to work and told his boss about the horrors he had seen in Hiroshima. His boss did not believe that one bomb could destroy an entire city. At this moment, a blinding light flared up in the room again — it was the second bomb, \"Fat Man).

Yamaguchi himself described it as: \"I thought the mushroom cloud followed me from Hiroshima.\"

Consequences and Health

Despite the double exposure, Yamaguchi survived, but suffered from the consequences all his life. He had cataracts, deafness in one ear, leukopenia, hair loss for 15 years and the effects of burns. His family also suffered: his wife, who also received radiation exposure, died of kidney and liver cancer, and his son died of cancer at the age of 59.

Official Recognition

For a long time, Yamaguchi had the status of hibakusha only for Nagasaki. It was only March 26, 2009 that the authorities of Nagasaki officially confirmed that he was also in Hiroshima during the first explosion. He himself said: \"The double dose of radioactive exposure I received is now recorded in an official government document. This record can tell the horrifying story of atomic bombings to future generations even after my death.\".

Witness and Voice for Peace

In 2006, Yamaguchi became the hero of the documentary film \"Twice Survived,\" which was shown at the United Nations headquarters. In 2009, he wrote a letter to President Barack Obama of the United States, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

His daughter said that the family had long feared that he looked \"too healthy\" for public appearances, and people might think that the atomic bomb is not so terrifying.

Cutomu Yamaguchi died January 4, 2010 of stomach cancer at the age of 93.

Comparative Table

Conclusion

His story is not just a record of survival, but a testament to how fragile human life can be in the face of a nuclear catastrophe.

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