Sumiteru Taniguchi, 86, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki (Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Sumiteru Taniguchi was 16-years-old when an atomic bomb threw him from his bike in Nagasaki.

Flesh dangled from his back, arms and shoulders as he wandered around dazed.

He was lucky to escape with his life.

For 70 years he has lived with a web of wounds covering most of his back, and the remains of three ribs that half rotted away.


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(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

The radius of the Fat Man bomb if it were to be dropped on London

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

His wife still applies a moisturizing cream every morning to reduce irritation from the scars. Not a day goes by without pain.



He had been about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) from the epicenter of the ‘Fat Man’ plutonium bomb that detonated over Nagasaki on August 9 1945, killing more than 70,000 people. Six days later, Japan surrendered, ending World War II.

The victim spent 21 months lying on his stomach getting treatment for his burned back, decomposing flesh and exposed bones.

Taniguchi hopes no one else will have to suffer the pain of nuclear weapons. He heads a Nagasaki survivors group working against nuclear proliferation, though old age and pneumonia are making it harder for him to play an active role.

‘I want this to be the end,’ he said.

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)