Victims of both nuclear explosions

“Hibakusha” (被爆者: being exposed, bomb, person) is a Japanese word that means “nuclear bomb victim”. In this category of “hibakusha” there is the people who where within two kilometers from the hypocenter at Hiroshima or Nagasaki, those who where within five kilometers from the hypocenters sometime during the next two weeks from the explosion, and those kids who were born from women who are in the previous categories. Nowadays the Japanese Government says that there are 250.000 “hibakusha” who are still living with and average age of 75 years. Most of the receive monetary support from the government.

Yesterday I watched a documentary about seven victims who were very very unlucky. They were in Hiroshima the day of the first explosion and in Nagasaki the day of the second one. In this case, the victims are considered “Nijuu Hibakusha” (Two times exposed to the bombs) and it is believed that there were at least 160 victims in this category. Hidetaka Inazuka, the documentary director found seven “Nijuu Hibakusha” who are still alive and created a film about their experiences. The documentary explains with big detail what happened to a Mitsubishi employee who suffered both explosions. This Mitsubishi employee lived in Nagasaki but the day when “Little Boy” was dropped in Hiroshima he was there in a business trip. Fortunately he was inside a building with big walls that protected him against the first radiation. He was heavily injured but managed to return home(Nagasaki). He was explaining to his people about what happened in Hiroshima, and in that moment it happened again! He thought it was the end of the world, or maybe those terrific brilliant hot things were following him.

The documentary is called “Nijuu Hibakusha”, and I think there is only Japanese version.