| RIP Yamaguchi Tsutomu, Double-Hibakusha |
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| by PJ Punla |
| Tuesday, 12 January 2010 13:41 |
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(All Japanese names in this story follow the surname-first format.)
山口 彊 (Yamaguchi Tsutomu), the only man officially recognized by the Japanese government to have survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, has died on January 4 this year of stomach cancer.
A young worker with Mitsubishi during the Second World War, Yamaguchi’s residence and office was in Nagasaki. In the summer of 1945 he went to Hiroshima on a business trip; he was preparing to leave that city on August 6, when the Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb near the center of Hiroshima. The blast and its resulting explosion ruptured Yamaguchi’s eardrums, left him temporarily blind, and burned the left side of the top half of his body. The exposure to radiation also meant that he was now hibakusha, an “explosion-affected person”.
Yamaguchi returned to Nagasaki on August 7. He received treatment for the wounds sustained from the Hiroshima blast, and reported back to work on August 9. As he was describing the Hiroshima blast to his supervisor, the Bocks Car dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Yamaguchi thus became a double-hibakusha. He was unhurt by this second explosion, but he was unable to seek treatment for a second time after the Nagasaki blast ruined his bandages.
Yamaguchi went on to write a book about his experiences and took part in a 2006 documentary about double A-bomb victims (in all numbering about 165), called Nijuuhibaku (“Twice Bombed”). At the documentary’s screening at the United Nations, Yamaguchi pleaded for the abolition of atomic weapons.
Yamaguchi was initially recognized by the Japanese government as a survivor only of Nagasaki, in 1957. It was only in March 2009 when he was additionally recognized as a survivor of Hiroshima.
In later life he also began to suffer other effects from the double dose of A-bomb radiation, such as cataracts and acute leukemia.
This woman has suffered severe burns from the Hiroshima A-bomb; the pattern on the kimono that she was wearing at the time of the bomb impact has been burned into her skin.
The victims of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic blasts continue to dwindle in number. Every year, the cenotaphs in the two cities record the numbers of the dying hibakusha, and as of August 2009, the death tolls stand at 263,945 (Hiroshima) and 149,226 (Nagasaki).
Because of the lack of knowledge about the consequences of radiation sickness, the hibakusha remain outcasts in Japanese society, suffering from severe discrimination. The book The Good War by Studs Terkel illustrates the point:
There is considerable discrimination in Japan against the hibakusha. It is frequently extended toward their children as well: socially as well as economically. “Not only hibakusha, but their children, are refused employment,” says Mr. Kito. “There are many among them who do not want it known that they are hibakusha.”
The deaths of the victims cannot be a help to this cultural dilemma, and thus become even more poignant testimony against the effects of nuclear warfare. The hibakusha are a powerful symbol of the anti-nuclear weapons movement; Yamaguchi was one of their more prominent voices and faces, and the world is darker – and that much closer to darkness – without him.
Sayonara, Yamaguchi-san.
Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibakusha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8443295.stm http://timesonline.typepad.com/times_tokyo_weblog/2009/03/the-luckiest-or.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/25/hiroshima-nagasaki-survivor-japan http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article766984.ece
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