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Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived both atomic bombs. He was on a business trip to Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, went home to Nagasaki badly burned, and was there when the second bomb fell three days later.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi

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The story behind the card

Yamaguchi, then 29, was an engineer who designed oil tankers for Mitsubishi. In Hiroshima he was about three kilometres from the point below the explosion; the blast burst his eardrums, briefly blinded him and burned the left side of his upper body. Back in Nagasaki he returned to work on 9 August and was describing the Hiroshima bomb to his supervisor when the second flash filled the office, again about three kilometres away. In 2009 the Japanese government officially recognised him as a survivor of both bombings, the only person given that status, although a 2006 documentary shown at the United Nations counted about 165 people who had lived through both. He later spoke out against nuclear weapons and died in 2010, aged 93.

Türkçe oku
Tsutomu Yamaguchi iki atom bombasından da sağ kurtuldu. 6 Ağustos 1945'te iş için Hiroşima'daydı; ağır yanıklarla evine, Nagazaki'ye döndü ve üç gün sonra ikinci bomba atıldığında oradaydı.

O sırada 29 yaşında olan Yamaguchi, Mitsubishi'de petrol tankeri tasarlayan bir mühendisti. Hiroşima'da patlamanın tam altındaki noktadan yaklaşık üç kilometre uzaktaydı; patlama kulak zarlarını patlattı, bir süre gözlerini kör etti ve üst bedeninin sol yanını yaktı. Nagazaki'ye döndükten sonra 9 Ağustos'ta işbaşı yaptı; amirine Hiroşima'daki bombayı anlatırken ikinci patlamanın ışığı odayı doldurdu. Bu kez de merkeze yaklaşık üç kilometre uzaktaydı. Japon hükümeti 2009'da onu iki bombadan da sağ çıkan kişi olarak resmen tanıdı; bu statüyü alan tek kişi odur. Oysa 2006'da Birleşmiş Milletler'de gösterilen bir belgesel, iki bombayı da yaşamış yaklaşık 165 kişi saymıştı. Yamaguchi sonraki yıllarda nükleer silahlara karşı konuştu ve 2010'da 93 yaşında öldü.

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Background reading: Tsutomu Yamaguchi
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