Morreu o último sobrevivente de Hiroshima e Nagasaki
Um cancro no estâmago matou o homem que escapou a duas bombas atómicas
Tsutomu Yamaguchi era o último sobrevivente oficialmente reconhecido das bombas atómicas que destruíram as cidades japonesas de Hiroshima e Nagasaki. Depois de ter escapado por duas vezes ao cataclismo nuclear, foi vencido por um cancro no estômago na passada segunda-feira, tinha 93 anos.
O reconhecimento de quer era a única testemunha dos dois ataques norte-americanos recebeu a chancela do governo nipónico em Março. Natural de Nagasaki, Yamaguchi estava em trabalho em Hiroshima, quando a 6 de Agosto de 1945, caiu a primeira bomba atómica da história.
Ferido com queimaduras nos braços e assustado, o japonês fugiu. Apanhou o comboio para casa. Não adivinhava que três dias depois, teria de assistir de novo ao horror da destruição do cogumelo nuclear. «Morri duas vezes e nasci duas vezes nesta vida, tenho que contar este facto da história antes de morrer», disse numa entrevista à agência EFE, em Agosto.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi foi um acérrimo opositor público deste tipo de armamento, mesmo que ele tivesse acabado com a guerra. «Perdemos uma das testemunhas mais importantes desta história», disse o presidente da autarquia de Nagasaki, Tomihisa, ao lamentar a morte de Yamaguchi.
Apesar de ter sobrevivido, o seu corpo registou de forma dura os bombardeamentos. Ainda em 1945, os efeitos da radiação levaram a que sofresse uma forte redução de glóbulos brancos, perdeu a visão no olho esquerdo, teve que ser operado às cataratas e teve de lhe ser retirada a vesícula.
http://diario.iol.pt/internacional/hiroshima-nagasaki-japao-bomba-atomica-tvi24-tsutomu-yamaguchi/1114553-4073.html
Um sobrevivente da história
Roberto Magalhães
Muitos se perguntaram se o japonês Tsutomu Yamaguchi foi o mais sortudo ou o mais azarado dos homens. Afinal, ele era a única pessoa reconhecida oficialmente pelo governo japonês a ter sobrevivido aos dois ataques atômicos da história, que arrasaram as cidades de Hiroshima, em 6 de agosto de 1945, e Nagasaki, três dias depois, e encerram a Segunda Guerra Mundial com dois dos momentos mais dramáticos e vergonhosos da história da humanidade.
Aos 93 anos, Tsutomu Yamaguchi morreu na segunda-feira, em Nagasaki, onde vivia, vítima de um câncer de estômago. A informação foi confirmada ontem por fontes do governo do Japão. "Perdemos uma testemunha das mais importantes desta história", lamentou, em comunicado, o prefeito de Nagasaki, Tomihisa Taue, que lamentou que sua cidade tenha perdido "um excelente contador de histórias."
Engenheiro, Yamaguchi estava trabalhando em Hiroshima quando, precisamente às 8h15, a bomba atômica explodiu. No momento da explosão, ele caminhava a cerca de dois quilômetros do epicentro da explosão. Atingido pelo impacto, ele sofreu queimaduras graves nos braços e, apavorado como todos os outros , ele decidiu que o melhor a fazer diante daquele cenário de destruição era retornar a Nagasaki, onde vivia. Ironicamente, ele buscou refúgio justamente no lugar que, em 9 de agosto, às 11h02, seria devastado por um novo ataque nuclear.
O japonês estava em seu escritório contando aos colegas o horror que presenciara em Hiroshima quando a segunda bomba atômica lançada pelos americanos foi detonada, a três quilômetros de distância, arrasando o prédio onde ele se encontrava. "Acreditei que o cogumelo atômico havia me seguido até aqui", recordaria ele mais tarde. O ataque a Hiroshima matou cerca de 140 mil pessoas e outras cerca de 70 mil morreram em Nagasaki.
A história de Tsutomu Yamaguchi motivou diversas reportagem desde o fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Mas, em março do ano passado, ele virou notícia ao redor do globo quando o governo japonês o reconheceu oficialmente como a única pessoa viva a ter sobrevivido aos dois ataques. "Minha dupla exposição à radiação é agora reconhecida pelo governo", declarou Yamaguchi à época. "Eu posso dizer às gerações mais novas os horrores dos ataques atômicos mesmo depois de eu morrer", ressaltou no ano passado.
Figura querida e respeitada em Nagasaki, Yamaguchi se tornou conhecido no Japão por suas frequentes palestras sobre os horrores da guerra e também como ativista pelo desarmamento nuclear. No fim do ano passado, Yamaguchi recebeu a visita do cineasta James Cameron, o diretor de Titanic e Avatar, que pretende fazer um filme sobre as duas bombas atômicas. Segundo sua família, ao fim do encontro o japonês teria dito: "missão cumprida", sobre seu empenho em divulgar a história dos ataques atômicos.
Em novembro, o Correio visitou as cidades de Hiroshima e Nagasaki. Na segunda cidade, a reportagem tentou encontrar Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Mas foi informada pelos funcionários do Museu da Paz de Nagasaki que o japonês estava internado.
Um cancro no estâmago matou o homem que escapou a duas bombas atómicas
Tsutomu Yamaguchi era o último sobrevivente oficialmente reconhecido das bombas atómicas que destruíram as cidades japonesas de Hiroshima e Nagasaki. Depois de ter escapado por duas vezes ao cataclismo nuclear, foi vencido por um cancro no estômago na passada segunda-feira, tinha 93 anos.
O reconhecimento de quer era a única testemunha dos dois ataques norte-americanos recebeu a chancela do governo nipónico em Março. Natural de Nagasaki, Yamaguchi estava em trabalho em Hiroshima, quando a 6 de Agosto de 1945, caiu a primeira bomba atómica da história.
Ferido com queimaduras nos braços e assustado, o japonês fugiu. Apanhou o comboio para casa. Não adivinhava que três dias depois, teria de assistir de novo ao horror da destruição do cogumelo nuclear. «Morri duas vezes e nasci duas vezes nesta vida, tenho que contar este facto da história antes de morrer», disse numa entrevista à agência EFE, em Agosto.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi foi um acérrimo opositor público deste tipo de armamento, mesmo que ele tivesse acabado com a guerra. «Perdemos uma das testemunhas mais importantes desta história», disse o presidente da autarquia de Nagasaki, Tomihisa, ao lamentar a morte de Yamaguchi.
Apesar de ter sobrevivido, o seu corpo registou de forma dura os bombardeamentos. Ainda em 1945, os efeitos da radiação levaram a que sofresse uma forte redução de glóbulos brancos, perdeu a visão no olho esquerdo, teve que ser operado às cataratas e teve de lhe ser retirada a vesícula.
http://diario.iol.pt/internacional/hiroshima-nagasaki-japao-bomba-atomica-tvi24-tsutomu-yamaguchi/1114553-4073.html
Um sobrevivente da história
Roberto Magalhães
Muitos se perguntaram se o japonês Tsutomu Yamaguchi foi o mais sortudo ou o mais azarado dos homens. Afinal, ele era a única pessoa reconhecida oficialmente pelo governo japonês a ter sobrevivido aos dois ataques atômicos da história, que arrasaram as cidades de Hiroshima, em 6 de agosto de 1945, e Nagasaki, três dias depois, e encerram a Segunda Guerra Mundial com dois dos momentos mais dramáticos e vergonhosos da história da humanidade.
Aos 93 anos, Tsutomu Yamaguchi morreu na segunda-feira, em Nagasaki, onde vivia, vítima de um câncer de estômago. A informação foi confirmada ontem por fontes do governo do Japão. "Perdemos uma testemunha das mais importantes desta história", lamentou, em comunicado, o prefeito de Nagasaki, Tomihisa Taue, que lamentou que sua cidade tenha perdido "um excelente contador de histórias."
Engenheiro, Yamaguchi estava trabalhando em Hiroshima quando, precisamente às 8h15, a bomba atômica explodiu. No momento da explosão, ele caminhava a cerca de dois quilômetros do epicentro da explosão. Atingido pelo impacto, ele sofreu queimaduras graves nos braços e, apavorado como todos os outros , ele decidiu que o melhor a fazer diante daquele cenário de destruição era retornar a Nagasaki, onde vivia. Ironicamente, ele buscou refúgio justamente no lugar que, em 9 de agosto, às 11h02, seria devastado por um novo ataque nuclear.
O japonês estava em seu escritório contando aos colegas o horror que presenciara em Hiroshima quando a segunda bomba atômica lançada pelos americanos foi detonada, a três quilômetros de distância, arrasando o prédio onde ele se encontrava. "Acreditei que o cogumelo atômico havia me seguido até aqui", recordaria ele mais tarde. O ataque a Hiroshima matou cerca de 140 mil pessoas e outras cerca de 70 mil morreram em Nagasaki.
A história de Tsutomu Yamaguchi motivou diversas reportagem desde o fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Mas, em março do ano passado, ele virou notícia ao redor do globo quando o governo japonês o reconheceu oficialmente como a única pessoa viva a ter sobrevivido aos dois ataques. "Minha dupla exposição à radiação é agora reconhecida pelo governo", declarou Yamaguchi à época. "Eu posso dizer às gerações mais novas os horrores dos ataques atômicos mesmo depois de eu morrer", ressaltou no ano passado.
Figura querida e respeitada em Nagasaki, Yamaguchi se tornou conhecido no Japão por suas frequentes palestras sobre os horrores da guerra e também como ativista pelo desarmamento nuclear. No fim do ano passado, Yamaguchi recebeu a visita do cineasta James Cameron, o diretor de Titanic e Avatar, que pretende fazer um filme sobre as duas bombas atômicas. Segundo sua família, ao fim do encontro o japonês teria dito: "missão cumprida", sobre seu empenho em divulgar a história dos ataques atômicos.
Em novembro, o Correio visitou as cidades de Hiroshima e Nagasaki. Na segunda cidade, a reportagem tentou encontrar Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Mas foi informada pelos funcionários do Museu da Paz de Nagasaki que o japonês estava internado.
http://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/app/noticia182/2010/01/06/mundo,i=164910/UM+SOBREVIVENTE+DA+HISTORIA.shtml
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, survivor of two atomic bombs, dies at 93
Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945
(Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)
Tsutomu Yamaguchi felt it was his duty to tell the world the truth about the atomic bombings
He was an impassioned and articulate man, a respected teacher, beloved father and grandfather — but none of these explain the unique distinction of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who has died in Nagasaki aged 93.
He was the victim of a fate so callous that it almost raises a smile: he was one of a small number of people to fall victim to both of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
On August 6, 1945, he was about to leave the city of Hiroshima, where he had been working, when the first bomb exploded, killing 140,000 people. Injured and reeling from the horrors around him, he fled to his home — Nagasaki, 180 miles to the west. There, on August 9, the second atomic bomb exploded over his head.
A few dozen others were in a similar position, but none expressed the experience with as much emotion and fervour. Towards the end of his life, Mr Yamaguchi received another distinction — the only man to be officially registered as a hibakusha, atomic bomb victim, in both cities.
Times Archive, 1945: Atomic bomb hits Japan
The first atom bomb, more powerful than 20,000 tons of TNT, had been dropped on the Japanese base of Hiroshima
“I think it is a miracle,” he told The Times on the 60th anniversary of the bombings in 2005. “But having been granted this miracle it is my responsibility to pass on the truth to the people of the world. For the past 60 years survivors have declared the horror of the atomic bomb, but I can see hardly any improvement in the situation.”
In the summer of 1945 he was 29 and working as a draughtsman designing oil tankers for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. His three-month secondment to a shipyard in Hiroshima was due to end on the morning of August 6, when the American B29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a 13-kilotonne uranium atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy. It exploded above Hiroshima at 8.15am.
“I didn’t know what had happened,” Mr Yamaguchi said. “I think I fainted. When I opened my eyes everything was dark and I couldn’t see much. It was like the start of a film at the cinema, before the picture has begun when the blank frames are just flashing up. I thought I might have died but eventually the darkness cleared and I realised I was alive.”
He and two colleagues staggered through the ruins where the dead and dying lay all around. At one collapsed bridge the three had to wade through a river, parting before them a floating carpet of corpses. They reached the station and boarded the train for Nagasaki. Reporting to work at the shipyard on August 9, his story of a single bomb destroying an entire city was met with incredulity.
“The director was angry. He said ‘you’ve obviously been badly injured, and I think you’ve gone a little mad’. At that moment, outside the window, I saw another flash and the whole office, everything in it, was blown over.” The next thing he remembered was waking to hear crying and cheering at the broadcast by Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan’s surrender.
A postwar career as a teacher and a long retirement followed, and Mr Yamaguchi rarely spoke publicly of his experiences. He began to do so only in 2005 after the death from cancer of his middle-aged son, Katsutoshi, which his father blamed on his exposure to radiation as an infant. “The son of 59 died, leaving the father of 89 behind,” he said. “He was still a baby to me. The death of my son takes away my will to live.”
Like most hibakusha, Mr Yamaguchi’s hatred of the bomb never expressed itself in anti-Americanism. One of his last visitors, James Cameron, is considering making a film about the bombs.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6978112.ece
Japan's double atomic-bomb survivor dies
AFP
Japan's double atomic-bomb survivor dies AFP/Jiji Press/File – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to tell …
by Shigemi Sato Shigemi Sato – Wed Jan 6, 10:24 am ET
TOKYO (AFP) – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to tell the world of the horrors, has succumbed to stomach cancer, his family said Wednesday.
Yamaguchi, 93, the only person officially recognised as a survivor of the two attacks, died on Monday at a hospital in Nagasaki.
"I thanked my father for leaving us with the treasure that was his effort to call for world peace," his daughter Toshiko Yamasaki, 61, told AFP by telephone. He is survived by a son, two daughters and five grandchildren.
"It is to our regret that we have lost a valuable story teller," Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue said in a statement. "His painful experience of being bombed twice in Hiroshima and Nagasaki drew worldwide attention."
Yamaguchi, then an engineer at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Nagasaki, was exposed to the first atomic blast in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, when he was there for a work assignment.
He was on a street about two kilometres (1.3 miles) from ground zero.
With severe burns to his arms, he returned to Nagasaki two days later to join his family.
Yamaguchi was exposed to the second atomic explosion the next day when he was reporting about the Hiroshima holocaust at his work place, about three kilometers (two miles) from the epicentre.
"I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me there," he said later.
The atomic blasts killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 74,000 others in Nagaski, leaving numerous others with ailments linked to radioactive irradiation.
Yamaguchi started to publicly talk about his atomic-bomb experience only in 2005 when he lost his second son -- who survived the Nagaski bombing as an infant -- to cancer.
In 2006, he was featured in a documentary film, entitled "Niju Hibaku (double irradiation)" with seven others who were known to have survived the two attacks.
The documentary was screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York the same year, featuring Yamaguchi as a guest speaker.
He became the only person officially recognised as a double A-bomb survivor last year when the city of Nagasaki acknowledged he was also bombed in Hiroshima.
Yamaguchi was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2006 and he was hospitalised last August.
"I think this will be my last lecture. I hope the baton will be passed to other people," Yamaguchi told a seminar in Nagasaki last June, according to media reports.
On December 22, US director James Cameron of the "Titanic" and "Avatar" fame called on him to outline his idea of shooting a film on atomic bombs, his daughter said.
"My father had eagerly waited for the director to come. He seemed to gather strength after the meeting," Yamasaki said. "He was heard saying, 'My mission is over.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100106/ts_afp/japanwwiinuclearhistory
Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945
(Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)
Tsutomu Yamaguchi felt it was his duty to tell the world the truth about the atomic bombings
He was an impassioned and articulate man, a respected teacher, beloved father and grandfather — but none of these explain the unique distinction of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who has died in Nagasaki aged 93.
He was the victim of a fate so callous that it almost raises a smile: he was one of a small number of people to fall victim to both of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
On August 6, 1945, he was about to leave the city of Hiroshima, where he had been working, when the first bomb exploded, killing 140,000 people. Injured and reeling from the horrors around him, he fled to his home — Nagasaki, 180 miles to the west. There, on August 9, the second atomic bomb exploded over his head.
A few dozen others were in a similar position, but none expressed the experience with as much emotion and fervour. Towards the end of his life, Mr Yamaguchi received another distinction — the only man to be officially registered as a hibakusha, atomic bomb victim, in both cities.
Times Archive, 1945: Atomic bomb hits Japan
The first atom bomb, more powerful than 20,000 tons of TNT, had been dropped on the Japanese base of Hiroshima
“I think it is a miracle,” he told The Times on the 60th anniversary of the bombings in 2005. “But having been granted this miracle it is my responsibility to pass on the truth to the people of the world. For the past 60 years survivors have declared the horror of the atomic bomb, but I can see hardly any improvement in the situation.”
In the summer of 1945 he was 29 and working as a draughtsman designing oil tankers for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. His three-month secondment to a shipyard in Hiroshima was due to end on the morning of August 6, when the American B29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a 13-kilotonne uranium atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy. It exploded above Hiroshima at 8.15am.
“I didn’t know what had happened,” Mr Yamaguchi said. “I think I fainted. When I opened my eyes everything was dark and I couldn’t see much. It was like the start of a film at the cinema, before the picture has begun when the blank frames are just flashing up. I thought I might have died but eventually the darkness cleared and I realised I was alive.”
He and two colleagues staggered through the ruins where the dead and dying lay all around. At one collapsed bridge the three had to wade through a river, parting before them a floating carpet of corpses. They reached the station and boarded the train for Nagasaki. Reporting to work at the shipyard on August 9, his story of a single bomb destroying an entire city was met with incredulity.
“The director was angry. He said ‘you’ve obviously been badly injured, and I think you’ve gone a little mad’. At that moment, outside the window, I saw another flash and the whole office, everything in it, was blown over.” The next thing he remembered was waking to hear crying and cheering at the broadcast by Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan’s surrender.
A postwar career as a teacher and a long retirement followed, and Mr Yamaguchi rarely spoke publicly of his experiences. He began to do so only in 2005 after the death from cancer of his middle-aged son, Katsutoshi, which his father blamed on his exposure to radiation as an infant. “The son of 59 died, leaving the father of 89 behind,” he said. “He was still a baby to me. The death of my son takes away my will to live.”
Like most hibakusha, Mr Yamaguchi’s hatred of the bomb never expressed itself in anti-Americanism. One of his last visitors, James Cameron, is considering making a film about the bombs.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6978112.ece
Japan's double atomic-bomb survivor dies
AFP
Japan's double atomic-bomb survivor dies AFP/Jiji Press/File – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to tell …
by Shigemi Sato Shigemi Sato – Wed Jan 6, 10:24 am ET
TOKYO (AFP) – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to tell the world of the horrors, has succumbed to stomach cancer, his family said Wednesday.
Yamaguchi, 93, the only person officially recognised as a survivor of the two attacks, died on Monday at a hospital in Nagasaki.
"I thanked my father for leaving us with the treasure that was his effort to call for world peace," his daughter Toshiko Yamasaki, 61, told AFP by telephone. He is survived by a son, two daughters and five grandchildren.
"It is to our regret that we have lost a valuable story teller," Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue said in a statement. "His painful experience of being bombed twice in Hiroshima and Nagasaki drew worldwide attention."
Yamaguchi, then an engineer at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Nagasaki, was exposed to the first atomic blast in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, when he was there for a work assignment.
He was on a street about two kilometres (1.3 miles) from ground zero.
With severe burns to his arms, he returned to Nagasaki two days later to join his family.
Yamaguchi was exposed to the second atomic explosion the next day when he was reporting about the Hiroshima holocaust at his work place, about three kilometers (two miles) from the epicentre.
"I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me there," he said later.
The atomic blasts killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 74,000 others in Nagaski, leaving numerous others with ailments linked to radioactive irradiation.
Yamaguchi started to publicly talk about his atomic-bomb experience only in 2005 when he lost his second son -- who survived the Nagaski bombing as an infant -- to cancer.
In 2006, he was featured in a documentary film, entitled "Niju Hibaku (double irradiation)" with seven others who were known to have survived the two attacks.
The documentary was screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York the same year, featuring Yamaguchi as a guest speaker.
He became the only person officially recognised as a double A-bomb survivor last year when the city of Nagasaki acknowledged he was also bombed in Hiroshima.
Yamaguchi was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2006 and he was hospitalised last August.
"I think this will be my last lecture. I hope the baton will be passed to other people," Yamaguchi told a seminar in Nagasaki last June, according to media reports.
On December 22, US director James Cameron of the "Titanic" and "Avatar" fame called on him to outline his idea of shooting a film on atomic bombs, his daughter said.
"My father had eagerly waited for the director to come. He seemed to gather strength after the meeting," Yamasaki said. "He was heard saying, 'My mission is over.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100106/ts_afp/japanwwiinuclearhistory
