MADness—the Blog

Long-lived, twice-bombed Tsutomu Yamaguchi died Monday at the age of 93.  Yamaguchi had been the last survivor of the two A-bomb blasts in 1945.  He had been in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first bomb went off.  Three days later he was back in his office in Nagasaki when the second hit.  “I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me from Hiroshima,” he said.  He was having a bad week, wouldn’t you say?  Rough enough to get hit by one atom bomb, but two!?  (On the other hand, he lived to 93, so maybe he’s an example of extremely good luck, rather than bad.)

There were believed to have been about 165 twice-bombed people, known as nijyuu hibakusha.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was the last of the nijyuu hibakusha.  What a story!  We need a modern-day James Fenimore Cooper to write the book.  For the movie, only one man can play the part:  Daniel Day-Lewis.  I’d bet he’s already enrolled in a Japanese immersion class.  We’re not dropping A-bombs anymore—and that’s a good thing—but maybe he could go to North Korea for an up-close look at their next test.