Career
He was only eight blocks away from ground zero when the explosion occurred. Some Catholics believe the survival of the priests to have been a miracle. The group of Jesuits survived not only the explosion, but also the effects of the radiation (the doctors were amazed they did not present any radiation illness).
Skeptics counter that while people inside Nagasaki"s Urakami Cathedral were afforded no special protection, there were non-Catholic survivors even closer to the center of the blast in Hiroshima.
Eiko Taoka and nine other people survived in a streetcar which was 750 meters from ground zero. One survivor, Akiko Takakura, was in a bank 300 meters away from the blast.
Eizo Nomura survived just 170 meters away from the blast, in the basement of the Hiroshima Prefecture Fuel Rationing Union. John Seimes, who had been on the outskirts of the city:
We believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima.
We lived and prayed the rosary in that home.
