Tsutomu Yamaguchi, 93, died on Monday as a result of stomach cancer. He was the only official survivor of both atomic bombs dropped during World War II. He was visiting on a business trip as a then 29-year-old engineer when the first bomb detonated over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. He returned the next day to his home in Nagasaki with ruptured eardrums and a burned upper torso. A few days later on Aug. 9, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
It is believed there were about 165 twice-bombed persons in Japan, known as “nijyuu hibakusha,” although municipal officials in both cities have said Mr. Yamaguchi was the only person to be officially acknowledged as such.
Over 150,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of both atomic bombs. As Andrew Sullivan wrote, "Tsutomu Yamaguchi was either the luckiest or unluckiest guy ever."