Monday, January 11, 2010

Atomic Bombs

There is only one "...officially recognized..." survivor of both atomic bomb attacks on Japan in 1945. His name was Tsutomu Yamaguchi, and he died recently at the age of 93. "He suffered serious burns to his upper body...", left the hospital for a return to his home in Nagasaki, there to encounter the second bomb. There are others who claim to have been in both cities during the attack but have not been recognized as such by the government. This source notes that 140,000 died in Hiroshima, 70,000 in Nagasaki and 260,000 survived the attacks. "Certification" means a person gets a government compensation with monthly payments "...free medical checksups and funeral costs". Mr Yamaguchi gave talks about his experience and spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.
(Source: "Two-time A-bomb survivor dies" by Jay Alabaster of The AP. Obit in The Record on 1/09/10)

No comments:

Post a Comment