John Hong was born in Shanghai in 1926; he talks about his childhood there. He talks about coming to Nagasaki alone to study in 1940; his family sent him money so he could live comfortably and focus on his studies. He lived in a dorm and fondly remembers the Japanese food he ate during his student years. He later went to a military academy in Hiroshima as a show of patriotism to Japan; he describes how most of his friends were Japanese. However, he remembers being bullied and beaten by Japanese classmates for his academic success and for being a Korean. He describes how he had finished school and was ready to leave for Ōsaka for further training on August 6, 1945, when the bomb was dropped; his face and chest were injured by broken glass due to the blast. He was treated at a military hospital and stayed with a commanding officer until he could return to Korea after the end of the war. After returning to Korea, he fought in the Korean War and describes attending a military school in Georgia in 1953 and 1955; he came to live permanently in the U.S. in 1976 after working in South Korea for the Itochu Corporation. He expresses his frustration at the lack of any kind of support from the U.S. government for hibakusha.
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