TSUTOMU YAMAGUCHI: HISTORY, PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Tsutomu Yamaguchi (1916-2010) was a Japanese-born translator, engineer, and educator recognized by the Japanese government as a survivor of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although about 100 people were known to have been affected by both bombings, he was the only one the government recognized as such.

The recognition came in two separate events. In 1957, the Japanese government recognized him as a hibakusha (person affected by the explosion) of the Nagasaki bombing. 52 years later, in March 2009, Japan also officially recognized its presence in Hiroshima during the explosion of the second atomic bomb.

Photograph of Tsutomu Yamaguchi by Justin McCurry. March 25, 2009. Source: A little deaf in one ear - meet the Japanese man who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki at guardian.co.uk.

According to the chronicles, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima when the federal government of the United States of America launched the first atomic attack on August 6, 1945. Afterwards, he returned home to Nagasaki and was there. when the second explosion occurred on August 9 of that same year.

These two nuclear detonations occurred in the course of the Second World War. Some 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and another 70,000 in Nagasaki. Likewise, it is reported that a large proportion of the approximately 260,000 people affected and who survived the explosions died from various degenerative diseases.

In 2006, Yamaguchi had the opportunity to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York. There, from his wheelchair, he pleaded with the audience to fight for the abolition of nuclear weapons. He said: "As a survivor, I experienced the bomb twice, and I sincerely hope there is no third."

History

Previous days

By 1945, the naval engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was working in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. While the war raged in the Pacific, he was on commission for three months. At that time he was working with the company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which was based in the city of Nagasaki.

That same year, in the month of May, their first child, Katsutoshi, had been born and Yamaguchi was very worried about his future. This concern was reflected in later statements he gave to the press, in which he claimed to be concerned about what he would do when the country was defeated and the enemy invaded them.

He also stated that he was thinking about what to do with his wife and family when the enemy arrived. Instead of letting them kill them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi believed that he should do something like give them sleeping pills and kill them. He was seriously considering killing his family.

With all these concerns in mind, on the morning of August 6, 1945, she was gathering her things from her room. He had finished the work commission that kept him in Hiroshima and was preparing to return to Nagasaki, where his home and family were.

Hiroshima

In his memoirs, Tsutomu Yamaguchi recalls that on August 6, at 8:15 am, the sky was particularly clear. He was on his way to the shipyard when he heard the sound of an airplane. Then, he looked up at the sky and saw the B-29, then he observed two parachutes falling.

He stared at them and suddenly it was like a great flash of magnesium in the sky, Yamaguchi felt himself flying through the air, passing out from the explosion. When he regained consciousness, his first thought was that he was dead.

Later, in his stories, he explained that he first checked that he still had his legs and that he could move them. She thought that if she stayed there, she would die. That night, Yamaguchi spent it in a bomb shelter and the next day he took a train to Nagasaki.

Nagasaki

Once in Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was treated in a hospital. He had burst eardrums and burns on his face and arms as a result of the impact of the bomb. That day he retired home and the next day, despite the bandages, he reported to his job early in the morning.

Just after 11 a.m., he was explaining to his boss about his experience in Hiroshima when a second American B-29 dropped another bomb (larger than the previous one). Yamaguchi managed to hear the sound wave that preceded the explosion and threw himself to the ground. This time he did not suffer burns but only radiation exposure.

As he could he managed to get home. His family and home were safe and sound, but the hospital where he was treated was in ruins. Tsutomu Yamaguchi and his family had to spend a week in a shelter affected by high fevers. Finally, on August 15 of that year, they learned of the surrender of Japan.

The days after

In 1957, Mr. Yamaguchi - along with other survivors - applied to the Japanese state for Nagasaki survivor status. This was necessary to obtain medical care and funeral insurance in the event of death from conditions resulting from the bomb.

Later that year his application was approved. According to his friends, Yamaguchi did not want to request this certification because of Hiroshima, because he considered that others had suffered more than him.

The government-issued ID stated that he had been exposed to radiation only in Nagasaki, thus neglecting his unique status as a double survivor.

Later, after recovering from his injuries, he began his activism against nuclear experiments. In the course of this activism, he wrote a book about his experiences. He was also invited to participate in a documentary called Twice Bombed, Twice Survived (Twice Bombed, Twice Survived).

Personal perspective

The Daily Telegraph (Australia, January 6, 2010)

After the Japanese government confirmed to Yamaguchi his official status as a double survivor of the atomic bombing, he gave statements to this Australian newspaper. In the interview, his opinion was asked about his future role as a hibakusha.

In this regard, he said that his responsibility was to tell the truth to the world. By the date of his statements, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was already known worldwide for his talks about his experiences. In them he often expressed his hope that nuclear weapons would be abolished.

The Independent (England, March 26, 2009)

Tsutomu Yamaguchi lived his last days in rebuilt Nagasaki, where he resided with his daughter, Toshiko. There he expressed that he was happy that his story reached people all over the world. In this regard, he commented in a telephone interview that when he died he wanted the next generation of hibakusha to know what happened to them.

Yamaguchi specified in his statements, speaking through his daughter, that he did not understand that the world did not understand the agony of nuclear bombs. Finally, the following question was asked: "How can they continue to develop these weapons?"

The Mainichi newspaper (Japan, March 24, 2009)

When the Japanese government recognized Yamaguchi as a double hibakusha, he offered statements to the press in his country. In them he said that his double exposure to radiation was an official government record.

He said he could now tell the younger generation the horrible story of the atomic bombings even after his death.

The Times (London, March 25, 2009)

Tsutomu Yamaguchi also testified regarding his impressions of the state of Hiroshima city after the detonation of the atomic bomb. In this regard, he said there seemed to be children everywhere, some running and many limping along the way. However, he did not see them cry.

Furthermore, he commented that their hair was burned and that they were completely naked. Behind these infants great fires blazed. The Miyuki Bridge, which was next to her bedroom, was still standing, but everywhere were burned people, children and adults, some of them dead and others dying.

The latter were the ones who could no longer walk and who had just gone to bed. None of them spoke. Yamaguchi was curious that during that time she did not hear human speech or screams, only the sound of the burning city. Also, he reported that under the bridge he had seen many more bodies bobbing in the water like blocks of wood.

References

1. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2018, March 09). Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Taken from britannica.com.
2. The Telegraph. (2010, January 06). Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Taken from telegraph.co.uk.
3. The Independent. (2009, March 26). How I survived Hiroshima and then Nagasaki. Taken from independent.co.uk.
4. Pardo, A. (2015, August 09). Tsutomu Yamaguchi: The man who beat the two atomic bombs. Taken from nacion.com.
5. Lloyd Parry, R. (2009, March 25). The Luckiest or Unluckiest Man in the World? Tsutomu Yamaguchi, double A-bomb victim. Taken from web.archive.org.
6. Pellegrino, C. (2015). To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima. London: Rowman & Littlefield.