Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
3:39 | In a small town near Hiroshima, Kay Sloan was astounded when the sky suddenly was filled with bright white light. No one knew what had happened until a visitor said maybe it was that "electric" bomb that the Germans had been working on.
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Kay Sloan was born in a small town near Hiroshima where her father was head of a Buddhist temple. When he passed away, her mother had to raise eight children as war was brewing in the Pacific. They faced increasing hardship as the war brought embargoes and dwindling food supplies.
Kay Sloan thought her sister was surely dead. She lived in Nagasaki and the second atomic bomb has just been detonated there. Then, a week later, a ghostly figure appeared at the gate.
Food was scarce and shortly after the atomic bomb had been used, Kay Sloan remembers that everyone in town ate up some delicious mushrooms that appeared in the vegetable store. No one knew about radioactive fallout.
Kay Sloan recalls the difficulties she faced as a Japanese war bride in America. Most everyone was nice to her, but she had a rough time with her groom's family.
