The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs: The Remarkable Story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi

In the final months of World War II, a man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi found himself caught in the eye of history’s most devastating storm — not once, but twice. His story is so unbelievable that it reads like fiction, yet every word is true. He is the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as a survivor of both atomic bombings: Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old engineer working for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. On August 6, 1945, he was in Hiroshima on a temporary assignment, helping to design a new oil tanker. It was supposed to be his last day in the city before returning home to Nagasaki. That morning, he was walking to the shipyard with two colleagues when he heard the sound of a plane overhead — a sound that would change the course of history.

At precisely 8:15 a.m., the American bomber Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare — codenamed “Little Boy.” Yamaguchi was only three kilometers from the bomb’s epicenter. He remembered seeing a blinding white flash in the sky, “like the magnesium flare of a camera,” before he was lifted into the air and slammed into a nearby field.

When he awoke, the world around him had been obliterated. Buildings were flattened, people were burned beyond recognition, and fires raged across the city. Yamaguchi had suffered serious burns across his upper body, damage to his eardrums, and temporary blindness. He staggered through the ruins, trying to find his way back to the company’s air raid shelter. Along the way, he witnessed horrors beyond imagination: charred corpses, people with melted skin hanging from their bodies, and a city reduced to ash.

Somehow, he survived the night. And the next day, he managed to board a train — yes, a functioning train — back to his hometown of Nagasaki. It seems impossible, but the rail lines out of Hiroshima had partially resumed service just a day after the bombing.

Despite his injuries, Yamaguchi arrived in Nagasaki on August 8, exhausted and in pain, but grateful to be alive. He reunited with his wife and young son and checked into a hospital. The very next day — August 9 — he reported to work at Mitsubishi to explain what had happened in Hiroshima.

As he was recounting the horror to his skeptical boss, another flash of blinding light lit up the sky. This time, it was “Fat Man,” the second atomic bomb, dropped by the U.S. on Nagasaki. Once again, Yamaguchi was about three kilometers from ground zero. And once again, he survived.

The second explosion destroyed much of Nagasaki, killing an estimated 70,000 people. Yamaguchi’s home was destroyed, and he and his family took refuge in a bomb shelter. His wife and child, who had been out buying burn ointment when the bomb hit, also survived — miraculously shielded by a tunnel. Had they been just a few minutes earlier or later, they might not have made it.

Yamaguchi spent the following weeks and months battling radiation sickness. His hair fell out, he ran a dangerously high fever, and he vomited constantly. But he recovered.

In the years that followed, he kept mostly quiet about his experiences. Like many survivors — known in Japan as hibakusha — he faced social stigma and discrimination. But later in life, he decided to speak out, becoming an advocate for nuclear disarmament. In interviews, he expressed the pain and sorrow of witnessing two cities destroyed, and he dedicated his voice to making sure such horror would never happen again.

In 2009, the Japanese government officially recognized Tsutomu Yamaguchi as the only known person to survive both atomic bombings. He passed away from stomach cancer on January 4, 2010, at the age of 93.

His story is not just one of survival, but of resilience, courage, and the will to live through the most unthinkable events in human history. Tsutomu Yamaguchi saw the worst of mankind — and yet lived long enough to speak for peace.