History of Asia

Survive two nuclear explosions.

One of those moments in history that will be difficult to erase is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan; the only time nuclear weapons have been used and that should be enough to make it the last. After the war in Europe, the presidents of the USA, the United Kingdom and China – Harry Truman , Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek respectively – issue an ultimatum to Japan, in the so-called Potsdam Declaration , with the conditions of his surrender. Japan ignored it and, as the statement warned, faced “swift and total destruction ”.

Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Fat Man over Nagasaki on August 9. During the first months, it is estimated that the number of deaths, due to multiple circumstances, was more than 100,000 people in Hiroshima and around 70,000 in Nagasaki. On September 2, Japan signed the Act of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Despite the terrible number of victims on the same day as the bombs were dropped, in both cities, there were some cases of Japanese who survived the two bombs… they were the so-called nijyuu hibakusha .

Little Boy and Fat man

It is believed that there were about 165 people who survived both bombs, but the best known case, by a book and the documentary Niju Hibaku (Twice bombed ), was that of Tsutomu Yamaguchi , recognized as the only official survivor of the two explosions who died in 2010 at the age of 93. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a ship designer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries who was in Hiroshima for work. Although he suffered some burns, his obsession was to communicate with his family but there was no possibility, so as soon as he got permission to leave the city, on August 8, he returned to his house:Nagasaki. The next day, he joined his work and, while he was explaining his experience to his colleague... he once again witnessed another massacre.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi

After the war many journalists tried to locate the Nijyuu Hibakusha but, lucky as they were, they were only able to locate a handful of them. Many suffered psychological consequences that traumatized them and did not want to talk about those fateful days and, furthermore, society, still ignorant of the consequences of the settlement, mistrusted them for fear of contagion. It wasn't until the incident at Bikini Atoll , in 1954, where a Japanese tuna vessel, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru , was contaminated by radiation caused by the explosion of a US hydrogen bomb, when the Japanese authorities became aware of this problem and passed a law that provided free medical care for those affected by atomic bombs.

When Tsutomu Yamaguchi he lost his son to cancer in 2005, at the age of 59, he went public with his story.