Tsutomu Yamaguchi known by friends as "Lucky"Back in the summer of 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Nagaski Japan native, was on business in Hiroshima Japan. It had been a three month long trip by the time the morning of August 6th rolled around, and Yamaguchi was eager to put the finishing touches on his trip by visiting the shipyard he had been dealing with one final time - he was to return to his native Nagasaki just a day later. Yamaguchi would make it to the shipyard, and eventually home, but the story involving that is what truly makes this man amazing.
History buffs have likely already caught onto where this story is going already. But the good spirited Yamaguchi describes in a 2005 interview clearly remembering the morning, a nice summer day, nothing necessarily out of the ordinary, at least of course until he heard a single plane flying overhead.
This plane of course was the B-29 Bomber Enola Gay piloted by a young Colonel Paul Tibbets. The payload was "Little Boy" the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Yamaguchi's story does not however end here. As the resilient man survived the first bomb, of course deciding to high tail it out of Hiroshima as fast as possible. And where else would he go, but home to Nagasaki, where he would fall victim to and survive the second atomic bomb blast. That's right, one man, two atomic bombs, zero deaths.
Yamaguchi would go on to live a very long life, he did however pass away just a few days ago on January 4th, at the age of 93. It was stomach cancer that finally brought the old man down, although he had sworn off both drinking and smoking at age 50. He is the only documented survivor of both of the atomic bomb drops on Japan, attacks that killed about 260,000 people in total. In 2006 Yamaguchi took it upon himself as the only living witness to both of these attacks to go before the UN and speak out against nuclear arms, feeling that well into his twilight it was still his responsibility to pass on what he knew to the people of the world.
And why exactly did he feel that way? Having not known or never having met the man I can't say for sure, but this quote from last year might shine some light onto his reasoning,
History buffs have likely already caught onto where this story is going already. But the good spirited Yamaguchi describes in a 2005 interview clearly remembering the morning, a nice summer day, nothing necessarily out of the ordinary, at least of course until he heard a single plane flying overhead.
This plane of course was the B-29 Bomber Enola Gay piloted by a young Colonel Paul Tibbets. The payload was "Little Boy" the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Yamaguchi's story does not however end here. As the resilient man survived the first bomb, of course deciding to high tail it out of Hiroshima as fast as possible. And where else would he go, but home to Nagasaki, where he would fall victim to and survive the second atomic bomb blast. That's right, one man, two atomic bombs, zero deaths.
Yamaguchi would go on to live a very long life, he did however pass away just a few days ago on January 4th, at the age of 93. It was stomach cancer that finally brought the old man down, although he had sworn off both drinking and smoking at age 50. He is the only documented survivor of both of the atomic bomb drops on Japan, attacks that killed about 260,000 people in total. In 2006 Yamaguchi took it upon himself as the only living witness to both of these attacks to go before the UN and speak out against nuclear arms, feeling that well into his twilight it was still his responsibility to pass on what he knew to the people of the world.
And why exactly did he feel that way? Having not known or never having met the man I can't say for sure, but this quote from last year might shine some light onto his reasoning,
"I could have died on either of those days. Everything that follows is a bonus."
Farewell Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Bonus Time and man itself have truly lost one of our champions.
For a more detailed look at his story please read http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/6943088/Tsutomu-Yamaguchi.html
For a more detailed look at his story please read http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/6943088/Tsutomu-Yamaguchi.html
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