The Man Who Survived Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki — and Lived to 93

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old engineer on a business trip to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. He was 3 km from the hypocenter when the first atomic bomb detonated. The blast burst his eardrums, blinded him temporarily, and burned the upper half of his body.

He spent the night in an air raid shelter, then boarded a train back to his home city of Nagasaki. He arrived on August 8. The next morning, August 9 — three days after Hiroshima — he was reporting to his employer, describing what he had seen, when the second atomic bomb detonated 3 km away.

He survived again.

His Later Life

• Recovered from radiation sickness
• Returned to work as an engineer with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
• Wrote books and poetry about his experience
• Became a vocal advocate for nuclear disarmament
• Met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2009 to argue for a nuclear-free world
• Died in 2010 at the age of 93 — from natural causes

Officially Recognized

In 2009, the Japanese government officially recognized Yamaguchi as the only person to have survived both atomic bombings. He is one of approximately 165 people known to have been "double survivors," but the only one formally certified by the government.

His full account: "Nagasaki and Hiroshima: A Double-Hibakusha" remains one of the most extraordinary firsthand documents of the 20th century.