Saving Stories: Nagasaki bombing survivor gives harrowing first-person account during oral history class project

By Alan Lytle

Published August 8, 2025 at 8:00 AM EDT

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FILE - In this Sept. 17, 1945, file photo, a Japanese civilian salvages a piece of what was once a child's tricycle in Nagasaki, Japan. The city marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Aug. 9, 1945. It was a second nuclear bomb dropped by the U.S. three days after it made the world’s first atomic attack on Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly a half-century aggression toward Asian neighbors. Dwindling survivors, whose average age exceeds 83, increasingly worry about passing their lessons on to younger generations. (AP Photo/Stanley Troutman, Pool, File)

This week marks the 80th anniversary of the US bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which essentially brought about the end of World War II. In this special edition of Saving Stories Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares an interview from a survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki.

Aiko Nakashima Allen was interviewed on 06/29/1989 for an oral history project conducted by students at North Middle School in Henderson, Kentucky. Born Aiko Nakashima, she grew up in Nagasaki. At 14, she and her schoolmates had started to work at a torpedo factory. On 08/09/1945, Aiko woke up with a fever, and instead of going to work at the torpedo factory, she went to the doctor with her mother. Following that appointment, she was going to take a street car into town to go back to work. Seconds later everything changed:

https://www.kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7wst7dvb5f