Double A-bomb survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi dies at 93
Jan. 7, 2010
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who raised his international profile as a double hibakusha after surviving both U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, died Monday of stomach cancer, his family said Wednesday. He was 93.
Born in Nagasaki, Yamaguchi suffered the Aug. 6 bombing in Hiroshima during a business trip and also the bombing in Nagasaki after coming home three days later. He began publicly telling his tale in earnest after losing his second son, who survived the nuclear attack as an infant, to cancer in 2005.
He was featured in a 2006 documentary film, ''Niju Hibaku'' (double irradiation), along with other double atomic bomb survivors, or hibakusha, and took his message for peace to the United Nations when the film was screened at the U.N. headquarters in New York that year.
''Having experienced atomic bombings twice and survived, it is my destiny to talk about it,'' Yamaguchi once said.
He was officially recognized as a double hibakusha in March last year when the Nagasaki municipal government entered his experience in Hiroshima into the official hibakusha certificate, which until then had only recognized his radiation exposure in Nagasaki. The entry was made at the request of Yamaguchi, who was a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. shipyard engineer at the time of the bombings.
At least 165 people are known to have survived both nuclear attacks by the United States. But the city of Nagasaki said Yamaguchi is believed to be the only person with official recognition as double hibakusha.
When he gave a speech in Nagasaki last June, he predicted that it would be his last chance to publicly appeal for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, but he accepted a request for an interview from a foreign media even after he was hospitalized in August, according to his 61-year-old daughter Toshiko Yamasaki.
He looked well on New Year's Day, reading a newspaper and a book, but became worn out Sunday and passed away at 5:38 a.m. Monday, asking the family in his last words to take good care of his great-grandchildren, Yamasaki said.
At the lecture in June, Yamaguchi said he had written a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama as he was touched by the president's call for a world free of nuclear arms in a speech in Prague in April.
''I wanted to believe deeply in his resolve...and to take action together for the abolition of nuclear weapons,'' he said at the time.
In late December, he had a visit from Hollywood director James Cameron and was listening attentively to the director's idea of shooting a film on atomic bombs, Yamasaki said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Jan. 6, 2010)
Born in Nagasaki, Yamaguchi suffered the Aug. 6 bombing in Hiroshima during a business trip and also the bombing in Nagasaki after coming home three days later. He began publicly telling his tale in earnest after losing his second son, who survived the nuclear attack as an infant, to cancer in 2005.
He was featured in a 2006 documentary film, ''Niju Hibaku'' (double irradiation), along with other double atomic bomb survivors, or hibakusha, and took his message for peace to the United Nations when the film was screened at the U.N. headquarters in New York that year.
''Having experienced atomic bombings twice and survived, it is my destiny to talk about it,'' Yamaguchi once said.
He was officially recognized as a double hibakusha in March last year when the Nagasaki municipal government entered his experience in Hiroshima into the official hibakusha certificate, which until then had only recognized his radiation exposure in Nagasaki. The entry was made at the request of Yamaguchi, who was a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. shipyard engineer at the time of the bombings.
At least 165 people are known to have survived both nuclear attacks by the United States. But the city of Nagasaki said Yamaguchi is believed to be the only person with official recognition as double hibakusha.
When he gave a speech in Nagasaki last June, he predicted that it would be his last chance to publicly appeal for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, but he accepted a request for an interview from a foreign media even after he was hospitalized in August, according to his 61-year-old daughter Toshiko Yamasaki.
He looked well on New Year's Day, reading a newspaper and a book, but became worn out Sunday and passed away at 5:38 a.m. Monday, asking the family in his last words to take good care of his great-grandchildren, Yamasaki said.
At the lecture in June, Yamaguchi said he had written a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama as he was touched by the president's call for a world free of nuclear arms in a speech in Prague in April.
''I wanted to believe deeply in his resolve...and to take action together for the abolition of nuclear weapons,'' he said at the time.
In late December, he had a visit from Hollywood director James Cameron and was listening attentively to the director's idea of shooting a film on atomic bombs, Yamasaki said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Jan. 6, 2010)
