Tsutomu Yamaguchi

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The Japanese Tsutomu Yamaguchi ( Jap. 山口彊 , Yamaguchi Tsutomu * 16th March 1916 ; † 4. January 2010 in Nagasaki ) had a known of less than 200 people, both atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the US during the Second World War, both experienced as well as survived. He was also one of nine known survivors who were close to ground zero in both explosions . He was also the only "double hibakusha " (atomic bomb victim) officially recognized by the Japanese authorities .

Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, Yamaguchi, who was then working as an engineer for the construction of oil tankers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki , completed a three-month business stay in Hiroshima with his colleagues Akira Iwanaga and Kuniyoshi Sato . He had got up early to prepare for the trip home the following day and had left his colleagues to get his personal stamp that had been forgotten in the office . When the atomic bomb detonated at 8:15 a.m. at an altitude of 580 meters, he was just getting off a tram about 3 km from the hypocenter . Before that, he had even heard the US plane Enola Gay , which then dropped the atomic bomb.

Yamaguchi suffered severe burns on his left upper body and was hard of hearing in one ear for life, but initially did not understand the scope of the events and the extent of his injuries due to severe pain. He spent the following night in an air raid shelter.

The next day, Yamaguchi, bound from head to toe, went to the train station again, where his route led him past the hypocenter just two kilometers away and he was exposed to intense ionizing radiation . He arrived in Nagasaki on August 8th.

Nagasaki

When the second atomic bomb detonated on Nagasaki on August 9 at 11:02 a.m. , Yamaguchi was again about 3 km from the hypocenter in his boss's office and was reporting to him about the events in Hiroshima. He suffered further injuries.

While searching for relatives, Yamaguchi came near the hypocenter on August 13 and was once again exposed to intense ionizing radiation.

Recognition as an atomic bomb victim

After the Second World War, Yamaguchi had already been listed as a double hibakusha (atomic bomb victim) by the Nagasaki city council from 1957 . When the documents were revised, presumably in 1960, the reference to his radiation exposure in Hiroshima was removed. When Yamaguchi tried several times to have the entries corrected, this was always refused on the grounds that it was not relevant to the assessment of his case.

On January 19, 2009, Yamaguchi again requested that his Hibakusha documents be corrected. Well u. a. Based on new testimonies from other survivors, Nagasaki City Council granted his application on March 23, 2009. This makes Tsutomu Yamaguchi the only "double hibakusha" ever officially recognized (although, according to current knowledge, there were a total of 165 survivors of both atom bomb explosions, of which nine were in the vicinity of ground zero in both cases).

Further life

Tsutomu's wife also became a hibakusha because she was radioactively contaminated by "black rain" ( fallout ). The couple had three children, including a son, who was an infant at the time of the Nagasaki explosion, died of cancer at the age of 59.

After the war, Yamaguchi first worked for the US occupation forces and as a teacher and later returned to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. He was a peace activist and continued to campaign for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. When he was more than 80 years old, he wrote a book about his experiences.

At the age of 90 he traveled to the USA and participated in a screening of the documentary "Nijūhibaku" by Hideo Nakamura (English title: Twice Bombed, Twice Survived ) in early August 2006 , which reports on his fate and the further "double hibakusha" , at a panel discussion at United Nations Headquarters in New York .

Yamaguchi died of stomach cancer on January 4, 2010 . Shortly before his death, he formulated a recipe for peace in the nuclear age : "The only people who should be allowed to rule states with nuclear weapons are mothers - women who are still breastfeeding their babies."

filming

Director James Cameron met with Yamaguchi in a hospital in 2010, days before Yamaguchi died. He intends to film his life with a focus on the events around Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steven Pinker : The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined , New York: Viking Books, 2011
  2. ↑ James Cameron on his 'Hiroshima' movie - due 'sometime before the next nuclear war'. Retrieved May 28, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Yamaguchi, Tsutomu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 山口 彊 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese atomic bomb survivor
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1916
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 2010
Place of death Nagasaki