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Super Man Survive from Double Atomic Bomb
A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person to be officially recognised as a survivor of both atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States at the end of the Second World War.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified hibakusha, or radiation survivor, of the Aug 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki. But officials have now confirmed that he also survived the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier.
Mr Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug 6, 1945, when a US B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He then returned to his home in Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, officials said.
"As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognised as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said Toshiro Miyamoto, a Nagasaki city official. "It's such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him."
Certification qualifies survivors for government compensation - including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs - but Mr Yamaguchi's compensation will not increase, Mr Miyamoto said.
Mr Yamaguchi is one of about 260,000 people who survived the attacks, which killed 140,000 in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.
Survivors of the bombs have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.
Details of Mr Yamaguchi's health problems were not released.
Thousands of survivors continue to seek official recognition after the government rejected their eligibility for compensation.
The government last year eased the requirements for being certified as a survivor, following criticism the rules were too strict and neglected many who had developed illnesses that doctors have linked to radiation.
Oldest Woman in the World
A Kazakh lady, Sakhan Dosova, will mark her 130th birthday on March 27.
Dosova lives in a small town of Prishakhtinsk, in central Kazakhstan, has 11 children and 37 grandchildren and great grandchildren.
According to Nuken Alkeshova, her granddaughter who takes care of her, the last national census several years ago revealed that her grandmother was the oldest citizen in the country -- and if true, the oldest citizen in the world by 16 years.
Alkeshova put her longevity down to eating cottage cheese and not eating sweets, and in an interview with RFE/RL's Kazakh Service certainly doesn't put it down to the $110 a month state pension she receives.
It's incredibly difficult to deny or support her claim. Dosova has both a Soviet-era passport and Kazakh identification card.
In the Russian and Soviet empires, the combination of non-Russian speaking locals and non-Kazakh speaking provincial officials meant bureaucratic errors were common.
Because of the distances involved in getting from remote parts of the steppe to regional capitals, documents like birth certificates were often processed every few years in mass batches thus widening the margins of bureaucratic error.
That's not to take anything away from Mrs Dosova though, who is clearly a remarkable lady.
In an interview with RFE/RL, Dosova said she hoped our correspondents wouldn't see what she saw in her long life and wanted the Kazakh authorities to realize how pitiful her pension was
A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person to be officially recognised as a survivor of both atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States at the end of the Second World War.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified hibakusha, or radiation survivor, of the Aug 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki. But officials have now confirmed that he also survived the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier.
Mr Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug 6, 1945, when a US B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He then returned to his home in Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, officials said.
"As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognised as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said Toshiro Miyamoto, a Nagasaki city official. "It's such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him."
Certification qualifies survivors for government compensation - including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs - but Mr Yamaguchi's compensation will not increase, Mr Miyamoto said.
Mr Yamaguchi is one of about 260,000 people who survived the attacks, which killed 140,000 in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.
Survivors of the bombs have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.
Details of Mr Yamaguchi's health problems were not released.
Thousands of survivors continue to seek official recognition after the government rejected their eligibility for compensation.
The government last year eased the requirements for being certified as a survivor, following criticism the rules were too strict and neglected many who had developed illnesses that doctors have linked to radiation.
Oldest Woman in the World
A Kazakh lady, Sakhan Dosova, will mark her 130th birthday on March 27.
Dosova lives in a small town of Prishakhtinsk, in central Kazakhstan, has 11 children and 37 grandchildren and great grandchildren.
According to Nuken Alkeshova, her granddaughter who takes care of her, the last national census several years ago revealed that her grandmother was the oldest citizen in the country -- and if true, the oldest citizen in the world by 16 years.
Alkeshova put her longevity down to eating cottage cheese and not eating sweets, and in an interview with RFE/RL's Kazakh Service certainly doesn't put it down to the $110 a month state pension she receives.
It's incredibly difficult to deny or support her claim. Dosova has both a Soviet-era passport and Kazakh identification card.
In the Russian and Soviet empires, the combination of non-Russian speaking locals and non-Kazakh speaking provincial officials meant bureaucratic errors were common.
Because of the distances involved in getting from remote parts of the steppe to regional capitals, documents like birth certificates were often processed every few years in mass batches thus widening the margins of bureaucratic error.
That's not to take anything away from Mrs Dosova though, who is clearly a remarkable lady.
In an interview with RFE/RL, Dosova said she hoped our correspondents wouldn't see what she saw in her long life and wanted the Kazakh authorities to realize how pitiful her pension was
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