The Man Who Survived Both Hiroshima And Nagasaki Atomic Bombings | Tsutomu Yamaguchi — Transcript

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1. 0:01on the 6th and 9th of august 1945 two
2. 0:04atomic bombs were dropped on hiroshima
3. 0:06and nagasaki respectively killing scores
4. 0:09of people in the two cities
5. 0:11the effect of the bombings can be seen
6. 0:13in both cities even today
7. 0:15of those who survived the bombings one
8. 0:17name stands out sutomu yamaguchi the man
9. 0:20who had the unique distinction of
10. 0:22surviving not one but both bombings this
11. 0:25is his story
12. 0:32[Music]
13. 0:39yamaguchi lived and worked in nagasaki
14. 0:41but in the summer of 1945 he was in
15. 0:43hiroshima for a three month long
16. 0:45business trip he was a marine engineer
17. 0:48who worked with mitsubishi heavy
18. 0:49industries on an oil tanker
19. 0:52at around 8 15 am on the morning of
20. 0:54august 6 1945 he was heading to his
21. 0:56place of work when he looked up and
22. 0:58noticed a b-29 bomber soaring over
23. 1:00hiroshima
24. 1:02a small object attached to two
25. 1:04parachutes dropped out of the plane
26. 1:05around three kilometers or 1.9 miles
27. 1:08away and the next thing yamaguchi
28. 1:09remembered was a flash of blinding white
29. 1:12light
30. 1:12the 13 kiloton uranium atomic bomb also
31. 1:15known as the little boy destroyed much
32. 1:17of hiroshima
33. 1:19the blast wave shattered windows for a
34. 1:20distance of 10 miles and was felt as far
35. 1:23away as 37 miles
36. 1:25over two-thirds of hiroshima's buildings
37. 1:27were demolished
38. 1:29survivors of the bombings recalled that
39. 1:31the sky was completely dark because of
40. 1:32the cloud of smoke and ash all over them
41. 1:35the hundreds of fires ignited by the
42. 1:37thermal pulse combined to produce a
43. 1:39firestorm that had incinerated
44. 1:41everything within a four and a half
45. 1:43miles of ground zero
46. 1:45about 30 minutes after the explosion a
47. 1:47heavy rain began falling in areas to the
48. 1:49northwest of the city
49. 1:51this black rain was full of dust dirt
50. 1:53suit and highly radioactive particles
51. 1:55that were sucked up into the air at the
52. 1:57time of the explosion and during the
53. 1:59fire
54. 2:00it caused contamination even in areas
55. 2:02that were remote from the explosion
56. 2:05just three kilometers from the epicenter
57. 2:06of the blast yamaguchi was violently
58. 2:09pushed back by the blast wave before he
59. 2:11was able to take cover in an irrigation
60. 2:13ditch
61. 2:14when the bomb dropped it resulted in him
62. 2:16having ruptured eardrums temporary
63. 2:18blindness and serious radiation burns
64. 2:20over the left side of the top half of
65. 2:22his body
66. 2:24he even fainted for a while
67. 2:26after regaining consciousness he walked
68. 2:28to his office but realized that the
69. 2:30building was no longer there
70. 2:32it was completely destroyed by the bomb
71. 2:34he found two of his co-workers who had
72. 2:36also survived and they spent the night
73. 2:38at a shelter
74. 2:39on the next day they headed towards the
75. 2:41train station which is somehow still
76. 2:43working the destruction was more visible
77. 2:46in daylight the fire still flickered in
78. 2:48places buildings and bridges were
79. 2:51shattered to the ground and
80. 2:52unrecognizable dead bodies were lying
81. 2:54everywhere
82. 2:55with the bridges down he had to cross a
83. 2:57river that was full of bloated corpses
84. 2:59of men women and children some of whom
85. 3:02were stuck together these disturbing
86. 3:04images would remain with yamaguchi until
87. 3:07his death yet at the time his main
88. 3:09concern was simply reaching the other
89. 3:11side
90. 3:12waiting through the dead bodies he
91. 3:13eventually made it across
92. 3:15when he reached the train station he
93. 3:17immediately took a train and came to
94. 3:19nagasaki his hometown on the 8th of
95. 3:21august
96. 3:22on 9th august although miserable he
97. 3:25reported to mitsubishi's nagasaki office
98. 3:28the company demanded a report on the
99. 3:29events of hiroshima
100. 3:31sutomu described everything he had seen
101. 3:33but the superiors could not believe that
102. 3:35just one bomb could destroy an entire
103. 3:37city and they called him crazy
104. 3:39after all no one had heard of an atomic
105. 3:41bomb before that point or seen the
106. 3:43destructive power it possessed when
107. 3:46yamaguchi was trying to explain his
108. 3:47ordeal to his superiors it was around
109. 3:4911am when the second atomic bomb also
110. 3:52known as the fat man was dropped and the
111. 3:54colossal explosion blew the city of
112. 3:56nagasaki just like that of hiroshima
113. 3:59sutomo dropped to the floor before the
114. 4:01windows shattered into microscopic
115. 4:02pieces over their heads
116. 4:0535 to 40 000 people died immediately
117. 4:08while tens of thousands died later due
118. 4:10to dangerous gamma radiation
119. 4:12yamaguchi was again about 1.9 miles away
120. 4:15from ground zero
121. 4:16this time he was unhurt but because of
122. 4:18the damage to his bandages he suffered
123. 4:20high fever and continued to vomit for a
124. 4:23week
125. 4:24most of the infrastructure of the two
126. 4:25cities was finished including 70 percent
127. 4:28buildings that became part of the ground
128. 4:31after the war he started a family with
129. 4:33his wife who was also a survivor of the
130. 4:35nagasaki bombing and they had two
131. 4:37daughters and a son
132. 4:38in japan the survivors of atomic bombs
133. 4:41are called hibakusha
134. 4:43although at least 70 people are known to
135. 4:44have been affected by both bombings he's
136. 4:47the only person to have been officially
137. 4:49recognized by the government of japan as
138. 4:51double hibikusha which means that the
139. 4:53one who survived both explosions
140. 4:56yamaguchi lost hearing in his left ear
141. 4:58as a result of the hiroshima explosion
142. 5:00he also went bald temporarily and his
143. 5:03daughter recalls that he was constantly
144. 5:05swatted in bandages until she reached
145. 5:06the age of 12. despite this yamaguchi
146. 5:09went on to lead a healthy life
147. 5:12he became a vocal proponent of nuclear
148. 5:14disarmament it was recommended that the
149. 5:16survivors of the bombings do not have
150. 5:18children because the damaged dna would
151. 5:20be inherited by future generations
152. 5:22causing them to suffer from headaches
153. 5:24vomiting internal bleeding peeling skin
154. 5:26and anemic blood yamaguchi had three
155. 5:29children who suffered health issues
156. 5:31throughout their lives
157. 5:32late in his life he began to suffer from
158. 5:34radiation related ailments including
159. 5:37cataracts and acute leukemia his wife
160. 5:40also suffered from radiation poisoning
161. 5:41from black rain after the nagasaki
162. 5:43explosion and died of kidney and liver
163. 5:46cancer in 2008 at the age of 88.
164. 5:49yamaguchi died of stomach cancer on
165. 5:51january 4 2010 in nagasaki at the age of
166. 5:5593.
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