91-Year-Old Man Exposed to Atomic Bombs Both in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

TMS PEACE JOURNALISM, 25 Aug 2025

The Nagasaki Shimbun - TRANSCEND Media Service

“It’s still too hard for me to remember the hells that I experienced twice. I walked past piles of bodies.”

Mr. Imamichi, who was exposed to atomic bombing twice–at Hiroshima and Nagasaki–currently lives in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

6 Aug 2025 – When asked “where were the atomic bombs dropped,” in the questionnaire, he circled both “Hiroshima” and “Nagasaki.” Of the 3,564 people who responded to the Nationwide Survey of A-bomb Survivors 80 years after the bombings, two were “double survivors” who answered that they experienced the atomic bombs in both cities.  Kazutomo Imamichi (91), of Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, is one of them. While he has responded to the survey several times, he revealed, “This is the first time I’ve written about being exposed to the atomic bomb twice.”

Until two years ago, when he shared his story in a video at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims (Hiroshima City), Imamichi had never confided in anyone other than his closest friends about his “double atomic bombing.” He had been plagued by concerns about whether his story would be conveyed and the anguish of “not wanting to talk about it.”

However, in this survey, he wrote, “I’m now 90 years old and have nothing left,” and agreed to be interviewed.

Born in Nagasaki, he moved to Hiroshima in 1943 when his father, who worked for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was transferred.

On the morning of 6 August, 1945, as a fifth-grader at the Tenma National School (now the Tenma Elementary School, Nishi Ward, Hiroshima City), he was walking to school alone, a little later than usual, when he was hit by a flash of light on the street about 2 kilometers from the hypocenter and blown away by the blast.

He ran frantically to school. The school building, 1.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, had collapsed, and teachers and students lay lying in the schoolyard. Even seeing the scene, “I didn’t know what to do.” He witnessed people being swept away one after another by the nearby river. Some were wearing tattered clothes, but when he got closer and looked more closely, he saw that it was not clothing but burned skin.

When he finally returned home, he noticed blisters on the left side of both his legs. This was likely because his left side was facing the hypocenter, but “I hadn’t felt any pain until then.”

His father was away at war at the time. His mother and three younger brothers were safe, and his house had escaped major damage, but he decided, “Rather than stay in Hiroshima, I’d rather return to my parents’ home in Nagasaki.”

On the way from his house to the train station, he saw bodies piled up in the field. “I’ll never forget walking past them.” On 8 August, he and his friends left Hiroshima by train.

However, what awaited them in Nagasaki, where they had headed to escape “the first hell,” was another “hell.” Imamichi repeated this several times during the interview. “It’s still hard to remember…”

Around noon on 9 August of the same year, the train approaching Nagasaki City stopped moving. “It was one stop before Urakami.” Not understanding what was happening, Imamichi, his mother, and his three younger brothers set out toward Ohato in the southern part of the city to board a ferry to his mother’s hometown.

The view opened up as they went over a big hill. Fires were burning all over the Urakami area, and bodies were scattered everywhere. But they had no choice but to go through it. They stepped over countless people who were still breathing. “Please give us water,” they called out to him, but Imamichi and his family didn’t even have any for themselves. “All I could think about was surviving. I was an 11-year-old kid.” It was only later that they learned about the residual radiation and the exposure to radiation upon entering the city.

At their mother’s home, they got to know Japan’s defeat in the war a few days later. After their father was demobilized, the family was about to return to Hiroshima that November, when their younger brother, who was four at the time, suddenly died. Imamichi now thinks, “It must have been from being exposed to the radiation twice.”

For many decades, he had feared that he would one day develop leukemia and suffered from rumors that atomic bomb disease was contagious. He hesitated to even talk to his wife about his experience about the radiation exposure due to the atomic bombs.

He decided to share his painful memories because of the successive conflicts involving nuclear-armed countries like Russia and Israel, and his fear that nuclear weapons might be used. He explained his painful experience as mentioned above to us, The Nagasaki Shimbun, in this interview:

He told us,”If my story is published in the newspaper, it will remain in people’s memories for years to come. I think it will also help people understand what the atomic bomb and war are like.”

Notes:

1. Hyperlinks were added in the text above by the translator for the convenience of the reader.
2. The views and/or opinions expressed in the above-mentioned article are either those of Mr. Kazutomo Imamichi or of The Nagasaki Shimbun, the original author-publisher of the article. These views and/or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Transcend Media Service (TMS) or those of the translator. Therefore, the reader is kindly requested to understand, interpret or judge those views and/or opinions at his or her own responsibility.

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Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. Having worked as researcher, development program/project officer, legal protection/humanitarian assistance officer, human rights monitor-negotiator, managing-editor, and more, he prefers a peaceful and prudent life.  His previous work experiences, including those in war zones and war-torn zones, constantly remind him of the invaluableness of peace.

Translation: Satoshi Ashikaga – Google Translate

Original in Japanese:積み上げられた遺体の横を…広島と長崎で被爆した91歳男性　「思い出すの今でもきつい」2度の「地獄」 | NEWSjp

Published by The Nagasaki Shimbun    © The Nagasaki Shimbun Co., Ltd.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 25 Aug 2025.

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