Hard to believe
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the man who survived both atomic bombs
11 min
On a business trip he survived the Hiroshima bomb, went home to Nagasaki, and was there three days later for the second bomb — the only person officially recognized by Japan as a survivor of both.
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Show notes
Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived the Hiroshima blast after returning to the city center for a forgotten identification stamp.
A supervisor in Nagasaki dismissed Yamaguchi's account of the Hiroshima explosion as mathematically impossible moments before the second bomb.
Reinforced stairwells at the Mitsubishi office created a shock cocoon that saved Yamaguchi from the second detonation.
Yamaguchi suffered from acute radiation poisoning, permanent hearing loss, and cataracts while working as a post-war translator.
Japan officially recognized Yamaguchi as the only double survivor on March twenty-fourth, two thousand nine.
Before dying at age ninety-three, Yamaguchi advocated for nuclear abolition during a two thousand six United Nations speech.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Forgotten Hanko3 min
- 3The Impossible Report3 min
- 4The Shock Cocoon2 min
- 5The Niju Hibakusha3 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi
- BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Man survived both atomic bombings
- The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs - History.com
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi
- Double-Blasted - Transcript
- Double-Blasted
- How I survived Hiroshima – and then Nagasaki | The Independent | The Independent
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi: The man who survived both atomic bombs - ABC News
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Survivor Of Both Atomic Bombings
- Only Survivor Of Both Atomic Bombs Dies : NPR
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Survivor of 2 Atomic Blasts, Dies at 93
- Double A-Bomb Victim: My Life beneath the Atomic Clouds
- Nagasaki anniversary: Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the man who survived both Hiroshima and Nagasaki | The Independent | The Independent
- Two-time A-bomb survivor longs for nuclear-free world - ABC News
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi: Survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts | The Independent | The Independent
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