Tsutomu Yamaguchi’s life is one of the most extraordinary stories of survival in modern history.

Eighty years ago this month, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, effectively ending the war in the Pacific. Yamaguchi was the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as having lived through both atomic bombings of World War II, enduring unimaginable destruction not once, but twice, and living to share his story.

Born in March 1916 in Nagasaki, Japan, Yamaguchi worked as a naval engineer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. His job often required travel, and in the summer of 1945, he found himself on a three-month business trip to Hiroshima, about 180 miles east of his home city. This fateful assignment placed him at the center of one of the most devastating moments in

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