TOKYO (AP) — A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both atomic bombings by the United States, officials said Tuesday.

The survivor, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, had already been a certified hibakusha, or radiation survivor, of the bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, in Nagasaki, but he has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier, in which he suffered serious burns to his upper body. Certification qualifies survivors for compensation, including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs.

Mr. Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when an American B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He returned to Nagasaki, his hometown, before the second attack, officials said.

“My double radiation exposure is now an official government record,” Mr. Yamaguchi said, according to The Mainichi Daily News. “It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/world/asia/25japan.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

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