Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognised as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of the Second World War, has died at 93.
Mr Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his shipbuilding company on August 6 1945 when a US 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 home town of Nagasaki, about 190 miles south west, which suffered a second US atomic bomb attack three days later.
Mr Yamaguchi was the only person to be certified by the Japanese government as having been in both cities when they were attacked, although other dual survivors have also been identified.
“My double radiation exposure is now an official government record. It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die,” Mr Yamaguchi was quoted in the Mainichi newspaper last year.
In his later years, he gave talks about his experiences as an atomic bomb survivor and often expressed his hope that such weapons would be abolished.
Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bombs. About 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.
Mr Yamaguchi is one of about 260,000 people who survived the attacks. Some bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.
PA