Posted on 03/24/2009 10:34:32 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Tsutomu Yamaguchi must be the luckiest man in the world - or unluckiest, depending on your view.
The 93-year-old appears to be the only person in history to have survived not one, but two atomic bomb blasts.
Today he became the first person to be officially recognised for surviving both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks at the end of World War Two.
Yamaguchi had already been a certified 'hibakusha,' or radiation survivor, of the August 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki.
But he has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well, city officials said.
Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on August 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city.
Traumatised, he then sought the refuge of his hometown - Nagasaki.
With devastating timing, he arrived just in time for the second attack, city officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Damn.
The US Army leveled two cities trying to get this guy.
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I remember his brother, “Chicken” Teriyaki - he flew 21 kamikaze missions.
Oh man, poor fellow.
Might it have something to do with undercutting MAD and the publics irrational fear of radiation?
Not to mention his vacation to Bikini Atoll in 1954 to work on his tan.
No one I met at this time — doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients — failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all.— Orwell, Homage to Catalonia.
Which just goes to show you. When it’s your time to go it’s your time to go, and not a MINUTE sooner.
Ha Ra Tu Git Hiem Det.
I remember reading a story in Time magazine over 30 years ago about a man who survived both blasts. Then later I read it was not true.
Sounds like there is at least one confirmed case, though.
*chuckle*... Hadn't heard that before.
I bet his ears are still ringing!
seriously folks... I wish comeone would have told this man’s story a long time ago.... it must be an amazing one
So...you think you’ve had a bad week?
I get chills just thinking about what this man has seen in his life.
This guy should visit Washington.
After Iran gets the bomb...
I remember his brother, “Chicken” Teriyaki - he flew 21 kamikaze missions.”
ROFL, now that’s funny!
Yep. He'd have been born under the Meiji Emperor, the guy who wrested Japan back from the Shoguns. Mind-blowing.
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