Oral history interview with Mitsuko Okimoto, 2012 June 9.

Mitsuko Okimoto was born in Hiroshima in 1931. Her father worked at a bank, and she says that her parents were quite strict. She recalls participating in military drills in school beginning in the first or second year at her girl's high school, and she also participated in student mobilization work for the war effort. She remembers that her history teacher told the class during the war that Japan was a divine country with an unbroken line of emperors and that it had never been defeated before; she and her friends would talk privately about how this was absurd and that Japan would probably lose the war. She talks about how her youngest brother died of dysentery during the war; she tried to get a doctor to help, but he arrived too late. She talks about where all of her family members were at the time of the bombing; they all survived, though her mother was burned by the blast. She herself was doing student mobilization work at a factory making parts for airplanes about 1.5 kilometers from ground zero; she received some injuries, and her chest hurt for 2 months afterward. She remembers seeing Soviet planes taking photographs immediately after the bombing. She recalls that some students from Tokyo University came to interview them after the bombing, which was the first time she remembers realizing that the bomb was something different. She also remembers that one of the older students at school, who was a Nisei, was absent during the war; the rumor was that this classmate was working in a "Tokyo Rose"-like role due to her bilingual abilities. She describes the circumstances that led to her working at a bank after graduation; she had originally wanted to go to pharmacy school. She came to the U.S. in 1963; she talks about learning to sew to help her husband, who worked as a gardener, pay the bills. She talks about how her child was somewhat frail and wondered if it was due to radiation from the bomb. She discusses her experiences helping other survivors.

Recorded 2012 June 9