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93-year-old man 1st person to be certified as survivor of both A-bombings

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Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

Okay, someone has to say it, so it might be just as well me: He must be the most unlucky man in the world. Ever.

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Or the luckiest to make it to 93.. best check to see whether he was around during the Kanto earthquake, or perhaps was on the Tokyo subway 14 years ago this week...

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I am just curious how he "proved" he was there. Did they just take his word for it? After all, it was over 60 years ago, and he's just now been "certified".

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Every person in Japan who wasn't killed by the blasts was a survivor. It would be better to call him a victim of both bombings.

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Or the luckiest to make it to 93.. best check to see whether he was around during the Kanto earthquake, or perhaps was on the Tokyo subway 14 years ago this week...

Exactly, he survived both and is alive and well enough to get compensation at the age of 93. He is truly a survivor against all odds.

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that old guy in benjamin button

"did I ever tell you I was hit by lightning seven times?"

ain't got nothing on him.

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USA if it is a true emocracy as it claims, should compensate all the victims, all the citizens of these cities and their families generations to come.

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USA if it is a true emocracy as it claims, should compensate all the >victims, all the citizens of these cities and their families generations >to come.

Give me a break.

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What an honor. Do you also want a medal too?

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I don’t know, after surviving TWO nuclear bombings in a week and living to be over 90! This guy’s got the genes of a super hero!

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we should never forget.

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USA if it is a true emocracy as it claims, should compensate all the victims, all the citizens of these cities and their families generations to come.

They have done! They built military bases in all the major cities and taught the Japanese how to hunt whales commercially. Isn't that enough? Ha, ha!

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I suppose some survivors of Infamy day, (Peal Harbor, Hi),also went on to serve in the Pacific campaign and also survived attacks from Japanese attacks. Double whammer.

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they award this in 2009?! we're they backlogged? personally, i wouldn't want to be in the same room...they happen in threes, you know.

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He must have nine lives!...:)

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It took more than 60 years to be certified as survivor of both atomic bombings..? wow, how efficient!

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He must have nine lives!...:)

on internet you can have more

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I sympathise with this gentleman very much, and its an incredible story, to have survived not one, but two atomic bombings. It is like a movie script. The fact that he has lived to the age of 93 is also amazing, so the bombings couldnt have been that bad for him.

What annoys me about so many of these stories, though, is the implied innuendos about how bad the USA was in all of this, in dropping the A bombs in the first place, and how some people suggest that America should compensate all the victims. I am not American, but I am from another Allied country, which fought 6 long years against the debauchery and evil tyranny of Imperial Japan. The fact is that Japan started the so called "Pacific War" and Japan was also an integral part of the original "Axis of Evil" which included Germany and Italy. Many millions died as a result of the actions of these three nations. While Germany and Italy have fully repented of their past deeds, Japan is still inclined to play the victim, when it was most certainly not.

The dropping of the A bombs was a terrible result of unwillingness and refusal of the then Japanese Government, and its Emperor, to surrender, and to sacrifice every last Japanese in the process rather than surrender. They even instructed their own citizens in Okinawa to commit suicide rather than surrender to the barbarians. Sure, the atomic bombings were terrible - but I beleiver they actually saved japan and also the Japanese people, from even greater disaster. Many people died, but many more would have died if the bombs had not been dropped.

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this has got to go as the crappiest week of your life when you have nuclear bombs dropped on you twice!! but yet, he lived to tell the story to his grand kids, so he can afford to smile.

simply amazing.

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“As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. “It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him.”

They're STILL finding out?

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Realist, please stop the crap you're spreading here! Here we go again, the same old song..."the dropping of the bombs saved Japan"...blablablabla. BS!!

Before they were dropped Japan was already negotiating a surrender AND the Americans knew about this. Still they dropped them. Not to "save" Japan, but to show it's muscles to the USSR. They were not dropped because of the unwillingness of Japan. Truman's very own words. Too bad over 200.000 people died because America needed to show off.

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Wow talk about bad timing.

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roomtemperature: Not justifying anything here, but Japan was trying to ask for things the US didn't want in negotiations thus the war continued.

Moderator: Readers, please do not try to turn this thread into a discussion on the lead-up to the A-bombings. Keep your comments focused on Mr Yamaguchi.

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Ok, simply, this guy was not only the victim of the two bombings, but also the victim of a inefficient bureaucracy. The theme of this story is, the Japanese way of government has a lot to be desired. End of matter.

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This guy has got to be the luckiest unlucky guy in the world. I hope the world will never have another war like that...

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Japan was trying to negotiate a surrender in which the emperor would still be in power, the US along with the rest of the allies wanted an unconditional surrender, even the soviet union didn't care about japans demands. Also you have to remember that in 2001 it was exposed that japan had themselves had an atomic bomb program that had successfully tested a nuclear bomb in what is now known today as north korea between the dates of the first atom bombing and the second atom bombing of japan, there were two possible uses for this bomb that the japanese were considering, one to use to take out the allied invasion force and the other to put on a sub to take out SF bay.

The truth of the matter is that although japan was negotiating they were still putting up a fight even though they knew they had lost, the goal was to fight as long as possible to get the allies to give in too japans demands for their surrender. Which means the atomic bombs that were dropped could have indeed saved lives if the japanese had their way in fighting for as long as possible in order to get the allies to concede on the surrender of japan. This fighting that the japanese were planning very well could have indeed costed millions of lives more on each side before japan surrendered. At the end of the day we will never know if the atom bombs on japan costed more lives then if the allies would have entered negotiating with japan.

Moderator: Sorry, we have already ruled that the background to the A-bombings is not relevant to this particular discussion.

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PEACE & UNITY

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He survived two atomic bombs and he is 93. Maybe he is inmortal.

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Let's not be hasty.

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this grandpa is the real diehard guy!

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Not immortal, but easy to find on a dark night. seriously lucky man though! wish him all the best

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He is incredibly lucky to just have survived the attacks and to have lived this long. You would have thought with that much radiation exposure he would be dead by now.

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This guy is just incredible, he s as unlucky than lucky. A real paradox.

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God bless him I say.

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Survived 2 atomic bombings in the span of 3 days. And you think YOUR week was bad.

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That must have been a really ruined week in August 1945. But what upsets me is that the guy survived TWO atomic bombs in 3 days during his 20s and he gets compensated only when he is 93? What's the money for, his retirement in his 120s?

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In other words, radiation doesn't kill you. The guy survived two atomic bombings. That makes me wonder about the people who supposedly didn't survive one. We need to take a closer look at whether or not their lifestyle influenced their demise.

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Definitely a case of bad luck followed by the good luck of living to 93. Of course there were lots of other people who were just plain unlucky on both days. This guy is amazing.

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He is amazing, as is the amount of money he is stealing from taxpayers.

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Makes you wonder if repeated exposure to high levels of radiation makes you immune to detrimental effects?

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"He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack."...."...just in time...", what a way to put it. Certainly unfortunate to be struck twice in a row, but incredibly lucky to have survived both.

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Let's see somebody top that!

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