home > on-air > american talkers > witness to the atom bomb >

PALCHIKOFF: People started coming out, some bruised, some wounded, and some burned. We started up the road to the mountain and we saw Negroes--they weren't Japanese, they were Negroes--and I asked them, "What happened to you? What's the matter with you?" And they said, "We saw the flash, and this is the color we turned." Anyway, finally we reached the hospital, a military hospital. I stayed there for two days, and there were people wounded, very badly wounded.

INTERVIEWER: Could you describe the nature of those burns, as I think the doctor here would be very much interested?

PALCHIKOFF: Yes, sir. All right. The skin just peel off. Some of them you could see the bone. The eyes were closed, the nose bled, and the lips swelled, and the whole head started swelling. And as soon as they gave water to them, they'd vomit it all out and they'd keep on vomiting until they die. Blood would rush out, and that was the end of them. On the second day, the wounds became yellow in color, and the wounds would go deeper and deeper. No matter how much you'd try to take off the yellow rotten flesh they'd just go deeper and deeper. And I don't think it pained them very much.

Well, we spent two days there, and then we proceeded until the 15th, when the emperor gave his decision about surrendering. And then we were taken to a little countryside in the mountain, from where I've come now.

Oh, yes, that's me. My name is Kaleria Palchikoff Drago. I'm 84 years old. I lived in Japan for 23 years, and I was living in Ushita. It's a suburb of Hiroshima . The bomb dropped the sixth, and everything went down.

INTERVIEWER: Did you feel anything at all when the light struck you?

PALCHIKOFF: Yes, I thought it was very hot.

There was a city, and then no city. You could see the ocean. And right after that, black rain. And that's when the fire started.

INTERVIEWER: How did they bury the people?

PALCHIKOFF: They just dug a big, big hole in front of the regiment.

When that interview was done, it was very fresh in my mind. My dad told us--he said, "Now you've got to forget all of this. It's going to make you very sad. And the experience must be extinguished from your mind." I very rarely tell anybody about the atom bomb ever. My friends, they don't know. And maybe--and maybe it's the fact that I don't want to remember it, so let's move on.

Producers: Matthew Ozug and Piya Kochhar / Executive Producer: Dave Isay / Production Assistant: Colin Murphy / Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Photograph of the atom bomb courtesy the Library of Congress. Archival tape provided by the National Archives. Family photographs courtesy the Palchikoff family. Special thanks to Gary Covino and Ethan Lindsey.

"Kaleria Palchikoff Drago, Witness to the Atom Bomb" premiered August 5, 2005, on All Things Considered. Copyright © 2005 Sound Portraits Productions. All Rights Reserved.

Please consider supporting the work of Sound Portraits and StoryCorps by making a donation.

This piece is available in the following audio formats:
		28.8 kbps Real Audio
		56 kbps Real Audio
		ISDN Real Audio

		intro
		transcript

		Kaleria Palchikoff Drago reflects on her life in Japan
		Testimony of Nikolai Palchikoff, Kaleria's brother and the first American soldier to enter Hiroshima after the bombing.
		Records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey on the National Archives Web site

home  |  ON-AIR |  in-print |  about |  education |  support |  store

Sound Portraits Productions, 80 Hanson Place, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Telephone (646) 723-7020 | Fax (646) 723-7026

Copyright © 2010 Sound Portraits Productions. All rights reserved.