Little boy and Fat man...... Written by Vic Davey

 

29 year old Tsutomu Yamaguchi was looking forward to getting home. As an Engineer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, he and two of his colleagues had been away for three months, working on a special assignment which was now completed. They left their accommodation early on Monday morning to get to the Railway Station which was located a little way out from the city centre. Part way there, Yamaguchi suddenly realised he had forgotten his hanko (a stamp allowing him to travel). Japan was at war and he knew he would not get far without it. Promising to catch up later with his co-workers, he returned to his workplace to get it. 

Tsutomu retrieved his stamp and as he walked towards the docks, glanced at his watch. It was 8.15 and he needed to get a move on if he wanted to make the train. “I glanced up and saw a bomber flying over the city,” he recalled, “two small parachutes descended from it and suddenly there was a great flash in the sky, followed by a blinding light, a wind, sound and heat and I was knocked to the ground.” He was only 2 miles from the detonation of the 'A' Bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima on the 6th August 1945. Some 5 square miles of the city were destroyed and 66,000 people killed outright. 

Although badly injured with burns over much of his upper body, temporarily blind and he would be permanently deaf in one ear, Yamaguchi was, by some miracle, still alive. He struggled to his feet, stumbled and crawled through the rubble and devastation of what remained of the city and the fires which raged all around, to reach a shelter. Amazingly, he found his two colleagues had also survived the blast and they rested the night there. Next morning, they set out once again for the train station, determined to get home. The terminal building had been all but destroyed but trains were still running. On arrival in his home city, Tsutomu was taken straight to a local hospital where he was treated and bandaged.

“I felt well enough to return to work 3 days later and had to explain to my boss and co-workers how I received my injuries”. His boss was very sceptical. “You're an engineer - calculate it. How could one bomb destroy a whole city?” He spoke too soon. Just then an air-raid siren went off and Tsutomu experienced a terrifying deja-vu. Another flash of blinding white light and he threw himself to the ground, screaming at the others to follow suit. His home town was Nagasaki and he was again, just 2 miles from the epicentre of an 'A' bomb detonation. “I thought the mushroom cloud from Hiroshima had followed me,” he remarked somewhat wryly, later. 

He suffered no major injury in the second explosion although medical supplies were in short supply to treat his burns etc. and he had a fever for a week or so after. The damage to Nagasaki was not as severe as in Hiroshima where around 70 percent of the city was destroyed due mainly to the flat terrain it was built upon. Although the explosion was larger, many parts of Nagasaki were divided by water so fires were prevented from spreading. Yamaguchi was, indeed, unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, twice.

 The irony was that the second target for the Americans was not supposed to be Nagasaki but a city called Kokura. However, when the bomber arrived, cloud cover precluded a strike as their orders were to not drop the bomb unless they had visual confirmation. Diverting to Nagasaki, the city was also obscured by cloud. Low on fuel, and running out of time they went ahead with the bombing run, only getting a visual target at the last moment before releasing their deadly payload.

It was later estimated that there were around 165 double survivors of the bombings but Yamaguchi was the only one to be officially recognised by the Japanese Government and then, not until 2009. “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.” Despite his injuries, after the war he went on to lead a healthy and productive life, first as a translator for the occupying Americans, then as a schoolmaster, eventually returning to Mitsubishi to design oil tankers. Clearly he was an articulate, intelligent and, may I add, a brave man. He was quite vocal in his opposition to the development of nuclear weapons. “I can't understand why the world cannot understand the agony of the nuclear bombs. How can they keep developing them?” 

Yamaguchi's wife, also suffered from radiation poisoning and experienced health problems throughout her life, as did their 3 children who had health issues associated with their parents' exposure. 

Tsutomu died in Nagasaki in January 2010 at the age of 93 from stomach cancer. A remarkable man with a remarkable story. 

PS. In case you were wondering, the title refers to the names given to the two bombs.