Le facteur sonne toujours deux fois...trois si t'es sourd

Survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Identified









By Justin Ewers






March 24, 2009 — There may not be a more memorable—or terrifying—way to
have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Twice. This spring, a
93-year-old Japanese man, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, was the first person to be
officially certified as a survivor of the atomic bombings of both
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Yamaguchi, who worked as an engineer in Nagasaki at the end of World
War II, had traveled to Hiroshima on a business trip on August 6, 1945,
when the first atomic bomb was dropped. He was seriously burned in the
attack, which killed more than 120,000 people, and he returned to
Nagasaki the next day for treatment. But on August 9, Yamaguchi’s
hometown was destroyed by another atomic bomb, which killed an
additional 70,000 people. The next day, Japan offered to surrender,
bringing World War II to an end.
It is not clear why it took Yamaguchi so long to come forward, but
his story has been a revelation in Japan. Victims of the atomic
bombings in Japan have long been certified as hibakusha, or
radiation survivors, which permits them to receive a monthly
governmental allowance and free medical care. Yamaguchi had already
been certified as a survivor of the Nagasaki attack.
More than anything, the aging survivor of the Second World War seems
to want the legacy of the bombings to be remembered. “My double
radiation exposure is now an official government record,” said
Yamaguchi, who is reportedly fighting cancer that may have been caused
by the bombs. “It can tell the younger generation the horrifying
history of the atomic bombings even after I die.”