Nagasaki after Fat Man
Although I was shocked at the lack of honesty in the Japanese A-bomb museum in Hiroshima when I visited it in the early 1980s, with the sense being given that poor Japan was bombed with no provocation, there is no denying the utter horror of the devastation wreaked on Hiroshima by Little Boy on August 6,1945, and by Fat Man on Nagasaki on August 9. But what were the chances of someone being in both places at the time of the two bombs detonating?
Well Tsutomu Yamaguchi was. Having fled from the ruins of Hiroshima to his home town of Nagasaki, he found it impossible to persuade people there of what had happened a few days before. Then the second bomb went off and it was too late. Now he is dead, at the age of 93. He wasn’t the only person to experience both calamities, but was the only one to be officially registered as a hibakusha, or atomic bomb victim. Unlike other victims, he spoke out, bore witness. An impressive man.
Leave a Reply