Double Atomic Bomb Survivor Dies

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person that the Japanese government officially recognizes as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, has died of stomach cancer at the age of 93. Yamaguchi sustained serious upper body burns during the Hiroshima bombing while on a business trip for his shipbuilding company. He stayed overnight in Hiroshima before returning to his hometown of Nagasaki in time for the U.S. bomb attack there on August 9, 1945. In his later years, Yamaguchi talked about the bombings and his hope that nuclear weapons would be abolished, including a speech to the U.N. in 2006. Filmmaker James Cameron, who is thinking of making a movie about the bombings, visited Yamaguchi in the hospital last month. After obtaining government certification as an atomic bomb survivor—a status which qualifies Japanese citizens for government compensation—Yamaguchi said that his double certification could "tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die."