Namjoo Park was born in Japan in 1932 to Korean parents. Her father came to Japan in 1929 and settled in predominately Korean area of Hiroshima. She talks about working hard to study the Japanese language as a student and being bullied for her academic achievements by some of her Japanese male classmates; she countered them by saying they were too dumb to match her achievements and become head of the class. She talks about a childhood friend who was a Japanese girl whose family had returned from Hawaii; she wore very fashionable clothes that were uncommon in Japan at that time. She recounts a time after the start of the war when her school's principal told them during a morning assembly not to underestimate the U.S., which made many of the students think he was a spy. She tells a story about her brother dying of pneumonia during the war, and while her family was waiting for him to die, members of the civil defense unit charged into the room and accused them of being spies. She describes how, on the day of the bombing, there were many boys who died while playing in the Fukushima River, while many of the girls, who stayed home, survived. She talks about helping other child survivors while in the air raid shelter. She explains how the U.S. occupation forces sprinkled DDT on them to help kill lice. She talks about rationing water to only those who were likely to survive while ignoring those who were dying. She talks about her distain for the ABCC (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission). She stayed in Japan after the war.
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