Tsutomu Yamaguchi

(16 March 19164 January 2010) was a Japanese marine engineer who survived and witnessed both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. Although at least 160 people are known to have been affected by both bombings, he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both explosions.

A resident of Nagasaki, Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on business for his employer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when the city was bombed at 8:15 AM, on 6 August 1945. He returned to Nagasaki the following day and, despite his wounds, returned to work on 9 August, the day of the second atomic bombing. That morning, while he was being told by his supervisor that he was "crazy" after describing how one bomb had destroyed the city, the Nagasaki bomb detonated. In 1957, he was recognized as a hibakusha ("explosion-affected person") of the Nagasaki bombing, but was not officially recognized as a survivor of Hiroshima by the Japanese government until 24 March 2009. He died of stomach cancer on 4 January 2010, at the age of 93.

Early life Yamaguchi was born on 16 March 1916 in Nagasaki. He joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the 1930s and worked as a draftsman designing oil tankers.

Second World War Yamaguchi said he "never thought Japan should start a war". He continued his work with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, but soon Japanese industry began to suffer heavily as resources became scarce and tankers were sunk. At 8:15 a.m., he was walking towards the docks when the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb near the centre of the city, only away. However, he was unable to replace his now-ruined bandages and he suffered from a high fever and continuous vomiting for over a week. and was invited to take part in a 2006 documentary about 165 double A-bomb survivors (known as nijū hibakusha in Japan) called Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was screened at the United Nations. At the screening, he pleaded for the abolition of atomic weapons. He told an interviewer, "The reason that I hate the atomic bomb is because of what it does to the dignity of human beings."

Recognition by government At first, Yamaguchi did not feel the need to draw attention to his double-survivor status.

Personal life Yamaguchi was married to his wife Hisako (1920–2008), and had three children. Their children, all of whom experienced serious health problems throughout their lives, were his son Katsutoshi (1946–2005), and daughters Toshiko (born 1948/1949) and Naoko. Yamaguchi's wife, also a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, died in 2008 at the age of eighty-eight; her cause of death was liver and kidney cancer, likely related to health complications from the atomic bombing that she had experienced her entire life. At the time of her death, Yamaguchi was living with his daughter Toshiko in Nagasaki.

His wife also suffered radiation poisoning from black rain exposure after the Nagasaki explosion and died in 2008 at the age of eighty-eight of kidney and liver cancer. All three of their children reported suffering from health problems, which they blamed on their parents' exposures to radiation.

Death

In 2009, Yamaguchi learned that he was dying of stomach cancer.

BBC controversy On 17 December 2010, the BBC featured Yamaguchi in its comedy programme QI, referring to him as "The Unluckiest Man in the World". Both Stephen Fry, the host of QI, and celebrity guests drew laughter from the audience in a segment that included examples of black humor such as asking if the bomb had "landed on him and bounced off". A clip from the episode was uploaded by the BBC after the show but was later deleted. A BBC spokesperson told Kyodo News, "We instructed our crew to delete the file since we have already issued a statement that the content was not appropriate".

The episode triggered criticism in Japan. Toshiko Yamasaki, Yamaguchi's daughter, appeared on NHK's national evening news and said: "I cannot forgive the atomic bomb experience being laughed at in Britain, which has nuclear weapons of its own. I think this shows that the horror of atomic bomb is not well enough understood in the world. I feel sad rather than angry".

The Japanese Embassy, London, wrote to the BBC protesting that the programme insulted the deceased victims of the atomic bomb. It was reported that Piers Fletcher, a producer of the programme, responded to complaints with "we greatly regret it when we cause offence" and "it is apparent to me that I underestimated the potential sensitivity of this issue to Japanese viewers".

On 22 January 2011, the BBC and Talkback Thames jointly issued a statement. In addition to the joint statement, the BBC delivered a letter from Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, to the Japanese Embassy.