In one of my earliest articles I chose Tsutomu Yamaguchi as a more than deserving topic. Clearly any man who survives having two atomic bombs dropped on him in three days has earned the highest honours that the Man Institute can bestow. On January 4th 2010, the world lost one of it’s manliest men. The current life expectancy at birth in Japan is slightly over 88 years and the average number atomic blasts survived is zero. Yamaguchi died at the age of 93 despite decades of illness caused by radiation exposure.

In 1945 Yamaguchi was an engineer working for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. On August 6, he rode a tram to Hiroshima on a business trip. As he was stepping off the tram, the “Little Boy” exploded about 3 km away. Yamaguchi was temporarily blinded, deafened in the left ear and suffered burns on the top half of his body.

Yamaguchi was heavily bandaged, went completely bald and had to spend the night in an air raid shelter. The next day, determined to catch a train home, he walked through the contaminated area. The city was full of “walking dead,” who’s skin he described as being like “a giant glove” hanging from the victims. Estimates of deaths from the blast and subsequent burns and radiation poisoning are up to 200,000. Yamaguchi returned home later that day, to Nagasaki.

Two days later, Yamaguchi was describing the experience to his boss when, once again 3 km away, the “Fat Man” exploded. Up to 75,000 people were estimated to have died. Among the victims of the bomb and resulting contamination was Yamaguchi’s wife, who was exposed to black rain and died of cancer years later. One of his three children also died of cancer and the other too have suffered illness as a result.

On March 24, 2009, the Japanese government made him the only person officially recognized for having survived both bombings. Later that year, he learned that he was dying of stomach cancer. Before his death, he had recently been in contact with US President Barack Obama as an activist against nuclear weapons. He had also been in contact with film director James Cameron to discuss a possible documentary.

Whether it was the radiation that eventually lead to his death or not, Yamaguchi truly proved that he was manlier than the atomic bomb.