RADIOACTIVE MAN

Is it possible to be both the luckiest and the unluckiest man of the 20th century? Perhaps it’s Tsutomu Yamaguchi, 93, a Japanese man who has become the first person certified to have survived both of the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II. Yamaguchi was visiting Hiroshima on a business trip on the day that the first A-Bomb was dropped and managed to survive the blast despite being temporarily blinded and suffering serious burns to his upper body. The next day he was released from hospital and returned to his home in Nagasaki, only to be caught in the second blast. “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,” said a government official. “It’s such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him.” (The Globe & Mail)