Last December the great Mr Stephen Fry was recorded on popular television show QI saying the unluckiest man in the world was one Tsutomu Yamaguchi. He was on a business trip in Hiroshima on August 6th 1945 when the first bomb went off, then returned to his home in Nagasaki on August 9th, when the second bomb went off. As soon as Fry said this Japanese viewers contacted diplomatic staff to complain.
There wouldn't have been any offence if the world understood British humour. Monty Python and Fawlty Towers spent a whole generation getting laughs out of the war, so much so that 'Don't mention the war!' is very recognisable in modern British culture. If I survived the only two atomic bomb explosions in the history of the world, I would certainly consider myself the unluckiest man in the world.
Let's take another example; Violet Constance Jessop was an ocean liner stewardess and nurse.
- In 1911 she was on RMS Olympic went it collided with HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight, it didn't sink, but slowly made its way back to Southampton.
-In 1912 she was on RMS Titanic when it struck an iceberg, she spent then night in a lifeboat before being rescued.
-1916 she was on HMHS Britannic, a British Red Cross ship, when it hit a mine in the Aegean Sea. During the sinking her lifeboat was sucked under a propeller, she jumped out and struck her head on the ship's keel. She was rescued and stated her thick hair cushioned her head and saved her.
I think it's fairly safe to call her the unluckiest woman in the world; I'm afraid I'm with Fry on this one!
