Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only recognized double survivor, survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings by US which killed 200,000

As the world marks another anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi continues to stand apart. Officially recognized as the only person to survive both atomic bombings of Japan, Yamaguchi spent his later years urging the world to remember the devastation he witnessed and to abolish nuclear weapons.


Yamaguchi was 29 when he was blown to the ground by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. According to a 2009 report by The Guardian, he had been in the city on a three-month business assignment designing oil tankers for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and was preparing to return home to Nagasaki after collecting his belongings for the train journey west.

How a business trip changed everything

On the way to the station, Yamaguchi became separated from two colleagues, Akira Iwanaga and Kuniyoshi Sato, after realizing he had left his personal seal in the office, according to the news outlet. He later recalled hearing the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay circling overhead but thinking little of it because Hiroshima was an important wartime industrial base where the sound of aircraft had become routine.

Within seconds, he was knocked off his feet as the bomb, “Little Boy,” detonated 580 meters above central Hiroshima just after 8:15 a.m., arriving with a blinding flash followed by a deafening boom.

Suffering from burns and still trying to make sense of the unprecedented attack, Yamaguchi spent the night in an air raid shelter before beginning the agonizing journey back to Nagasaki the following day. As he reached the train station, he witnessed the destruction left behind by the bomber’s 13-kiloton payload.

Two Cities, Two Atomic Bombs

With bandages still clinging to his burned skin as he arrived in Nagasaki, Yamaguchi reported for work the following day. At 11:02 a.m. on August 9, as his boss reportedly raised questions on his sanity for believing that a single bomb could destroy a city the size of Hiroshima, a 25-kiloton plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, throwing him to the ground once again.

According to The Guardian, Yamaguchi, his wife and their baby son, who survived the second bombing, spent the following week in a shelter near what remained of their home. His son later died of cancer at age 59. Yamaguchi survived while about 140,000 people who were in Hiroshima that morning died, some instantly and others months later. More than 70,000 residents of Nagasaki also died after the second bombing.

Japanese records showed that dozens of people experienced the blast in Hiroshima before being exposed to residual radiation in Nagasaki three days later, but Yamaguchi became the first person officially recognized as having been at ground zero during both explosions.

Official Recognition Decades Later

More than 60 years after the bombings, Japanese authorities officially recognized Yamaguchi as a survivor of both attacks. As a registered survivor of the Nagasaki bombing, he had carried a pale violet Atomic Bomb Victim Health Handbook since 1957, entitling him to monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs, The Guardian reported.

Although his handbook initially confirmed he had been within a three-kilometer radius of ground zero in both cities, the Hiroshima reference was removed when it was renewed in 1960. Officials had argued that recognizing his dual-survivor status would not change his medical or welfare benefits, but reversed their position after he submitted another request.

“My double radiation exposure is now an official government record. It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die,” Yamaguchi told the Mainichi newspaper, as quoted by the outlet. “As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognised as a survivor of atomic bombings,” Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto told The Associated Press at the time. “It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible there are more like him.”


From Survivor to Advocate for Nuclear Disarmament


Despite his exposure to radiation, The Guardian reported that Yamaguchi remained in relatively good health apart from near-deafness in one ear and complaints that his legs were “growing weak.” After the war, he worked for the U.S. occupation authorities, became a teacher and eventually returned to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

According to an Associated Press report published in 2025, Yamaguchi did not speak publicly about his experiences until he was 90 because he worried about discrimination. He then became a vocal advocate for peace, pleaded for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the United Nations, and remained active until his death in 2010.


A Legacy Carried Forward


His legacy has continued through later generations. The Associated Press reported that during commemorations marking the 80th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Yamaguchi’s granddaughter, Kosuzu Harada, joined Ari Beser, the grandson of Jacob Beser, the U.S. radar specialist who served aboard both American B-29 bombers that carried the atomic weapons.

Although the two grandfathers never met, both became staunch advocates of nuclear abolishment. Their grandchildren visited the Hiroshima train station where injured Yamaguchi boarded a train back to Nagasaki a day after the first bombing, before speaking at Hiroshima Peace Park about their grandfathers’ experiences and their shared effort to promote reconciliation and understanding.