The unluckiest thing imaginable happened to Tsutomu Yamaguchi. On August 6th, 1945, he was in Hiroshima for a business trip when the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. He survived, but with severe burns and a damaged eardrum.

In the chaos that followed, Yamaguchi made his way back home for medical treatment. Unfortunately for him, his home was in Nagasaki, where the second nuclear bomb fell just three days later. And, as luck would have it, Yamaguchi once again found himself too close to the epicenter of the explosion. He survived the second attack with further injuries and the kind of trauma most people couldn’t withstand once, let alone twice.

These are the only two times a nuclear bomb has ever been used in war. Let’s pause for a moment to consider: Do we think Yamaguchi was extraordinarily unlucky? Or, in a strange way, extraordinarily lucky to have lived through such a unique time in history?

The answer will depend on your perspective. Even the definition of “lucky” can shift from a mysterious, external force to a largely predictable outcome of people’s mindsets and behaviors.