Japanese Man Who Survived Two Atomic Blasts

    In an amazing coincidence, Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear detonations without permanent injury.

    In 1945, the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in what was one of the most controversial acts of warfare during World War 2 that tallied a huge amount of civilian casualties.

    One man, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, survived both nuclear detonations.

    During the war, he lived and worked in Nagasaki, the site of the second bomb. Yamaguchi was on a business trip in Hiroshima at the time of the first bombing. On August 6, as he was about to leave the city, Yamaguchi recalled seeing a bomber fly overhead and then two small parachutes sail down before reaching the ground, unleashing a "great flash in the sky, and I was blown over."

    At the time of detonation, Yamaguchi was walking to the docks only 3 km from where the bomb exploded, which ruptured his ear drums, blinded him temporarily, and seriously burnt part of his body. Luckily, he recovered and scrambled to an air-raid shelter. The first bomb that detonated over Hiroshima caused between 90,000 - 166,000 deaths.

    The next day, he returned to Nagasaki and received treatment. Despite his injuries and being covered in bandages, he returned to work soon after.

    On August 9 at 11:02 am, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Only minutes earlier, Yamaguchi had been describing to his work supervisor what happened in the previous detonation. In a strange coincidence, his job placed him within 3 km of the centre of the blast zone. Surprisingly, he survived the second explosion unhurt, but 39,000 and 80,000 people lost their lives.

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