Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognised as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of the second world war, has died aged 93.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his shipbuilding company on 6 August 1945, when a US B-29 dropped the first atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in Hiroshima.

He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, about 190 miles southwest, which suffered a second US atomic bomb attack three days later. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, ending the war.

Nagasaki's mayor today said "a precious storyteller" had been lost, in a message posted on the city's website. Yamaguchi died on Monday morning of stomach cancer, the Mainichi, Asahi and Yomiuri newspapers reported.

Yamaguchi was the only person to be certified by the Japanese government as having been in both cities when they were attacked, although other dual survivors have been identified.

"My double radiation exposure is now an official government record. It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die," Yamaguchi told the newspaper Mainichi last year.

In his later years, Yamaguchi gave talks about his experiences as an atomic bomb survivor and often expressed his hope the weapons would be abolished.

He spoke at the United Nations in 2006, wrote books and songs about his experiences, and appeared in a documentary about survivors of both attacks.

Last month he was visited in the hospital by the filmmaker James Cameron, director of Titanic and Avatar, who is considering making a movie about the bombings, according to Mainichi.

Immediately after the war, Yamaguchi worked as a translator for American forces in Nagasaki and later as a junior-high-school teacher.

Japan is the only country to have been attacked with atomic weapons. About 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Yamaguchi is one of about 260,000 people who survived the attacks. Some bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.

Certification as an atomic bomb survivor in Japan qualifies individuals for government compensation, including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs.