Tsutomu Yamaguchi’s claim to fame is quite unusual. He cheated death twice. On August 6, 1945 as a 29 year old engineer he was on a business trip for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Hiroshima Japan. That day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city killing 80,000 people. With burns to the upper part of his body Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived this horrific bombing.
He returned to his home town of Nagasaki, Japan. Three days after the Hiroshima bombing the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 people. Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived and is acknowledged as the only person to have witnessed and survived both atomic bombings.
Mr. Yamaguchi died in early January, 2010 of stomach cancer. He was 93. From the website cancer.org it list there is a 1 in 208 chance of dying of specifically stomach cancer like Tsutomu Yamaguchi died from. And when we look at all forms of cancer, other illnesses, accidents and even old age, there is a 1 in 1 chance all of us are going to die.
Some people talk of death in hopeless, depressing terms. Epicurus wrote: “Death, the most dreaded of all evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist”.
And Sigmund Freud quotes on death, “The goal of all life is death”.
But for the Christian, death has an entirely different perspective. There is hope.
And from the words of Jesus (who cheated death Himself when He rose from the grave). “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this”?
My Sunday Blog 
What an intersting story and thought provoking quote from the Bible. Have you ever written a post about how you developed such a strong faith? I grew up religionless while my husband was pressured by his family to join the Catholic church. These types of life experiences are always so facinating to me. I would love to hear your story. Have a great week.
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Erin, thank you for reading and sharing this. As I am thinking of it, I don’t think I have ever written a dedicated post of how I developed my faith. Although I probably have shared pieces of it here and there along the way.
In a nutshell my searching started following my dad’s very sudden death when I was 15. He was 47. Bitter and angry I eventually turned to the Bible looking for answers. I discovered God was not out to make my life miserable. He loved me. He wanted to help me get over my anger, grief and loss. I also discovered how Holy God is, and how much I mess up.
When we celebrated Easter 2 or 3 weeks ago it was when God’s Son Jesus died on that cross. It was a way to bring people like myself who mess up back in a relationship with a Holy God.
I was 19. It was 4 years after my dad died. I just did not want to be angry and bitter anymore, and prayed that to God. Told God I was sorry and asked for His forgiveness. And the amazing thing is the anger and bitterness was gone immediately. I felt a huge weight off my shoulders lifted. And decided following Jesus (becoming a Christian) was what I wanted.
I have been a Christian for 39 years now. You know life still throws it’s curveballs. There are still challenges and tough times, but my faith in Jesus gets me through them. It is a personal decision I made, and I am so glad I made it! 🙂
Hope this helps. If you have any questions Erin, please do not hesitate. I am here! 🙂
~Carl~
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I imagine that loss was profound. I bet others would benefit and gain inspiration from your journey, should ever decide to write a post or two dedicated to it. I am hoping to find a children’s church program for my daughter. Apart from the lack of spiritual connection, I never learned the stories of the bible until high school literature and later in college when I took Jewish studies as a general education requirement. So much of our culture (and metaphor) are built upon biblical analogy, I would like my daughter to have a knowing and cultivate her own beliefs. Thank you for the thoughtful reply.
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I’d not heard of Tsutomu Yamaguchi before, so very interesting! And yes, I do believe. 🙂
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Thanks so much Tricia. I read about Mr. Yamaguchi for the 1st time just a couple weeks ago in one of those “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader” books. I am always on the hunt for interesting illustrations, and I though hmm….this might work on a sermon on death. And when I goggled his name, a LOT of information came up.
It is wonderful to believe and have that assurance that God has much wonderful stuff in store after our physical, earthly death.
Take care my friend, and have a tremendous remainder of the week! 🙂
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