Kaleria Palchikoff the daughter of White Russian who fled the Bosheviks and lived in Hiroshima 15/12/20
Antony Drago is Kalaria's (Kay) son. Douglas Welman is a writer on WW2
The Palchikoff Marquis coat of arms from 1620 They were wealthy landowners who were rewarded by the Tzar for loyalty and leading an army.
1861 Alexander II emancipated the slaves
1673 The Romanov Family were rulers of Russia till 1917
The author's mother was 24 living in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. This is a firsthand account of events recorded for posterity.
1904
Japan attack Port Arthur
Port Arthor was a Russian port leased from China, and this could threaten Japan in Korea,
1922 They were fleeing the Bolsheviks in the Russian Far East. His mother Kaleria Palchikoff was born in Vladivostok 1921
Tinian Island is only 39 square mile and had been under the rules of Spain , Germany and Japan before theAmericans.
The B29 had a pressurized cabin. The target was the Aioi Bridge that spans the Honkawa and Motoyasu Rivers, the bomb was dropped at 8.15am
His grandfather Sergei Alexandrovich Palikoff was born in 1893 . They thought that the aristocracy and their role would go on forever. The family had a tradition of being musicians but he became a lawyer, and they joined the Imperial Army as was family tradition. The White Army was made up of several separate armies. Both the Red and White armies could not get enough volunteers and conscripted where they were .The White Army initially received support from Wetern powers.
Her grandmother born in Irkurs's family were part of Molokan community forced from Western Russia via Armenia and eventually to Harbin in Siberia which in the 1920s had nearly 200,000 immigrants from the west. They were basically stateless and that is where her grandparents married in 1920
The Revolutionaries had ceded the eastern territories of Finland , Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as part of the armistice of Oct 1917. The Bolsheviks wanted to kill every member of the aristocracy. They fled to Vladivostok and hijacked a Japanese ship to take them away. They destroyed all their weapons just before the Bolshevics arrived in 1922. The ship's captain offered them a better option to arrive in Japan stateless as refugees. 1923 landed in Hiroshima as asylum seekers. From there many went to other places in Japan, China, Europe S. America and the USA , they stayed in Hiroshima.
Japan was prepared to recognise Russia's authority over Manchuria if Russia would recognize Japan over Korea.
Her father began working as a musician in the silent movie hall, the musical scores were usually well known classical pieces and he could sight read them., later was asked to teach music at the Methodist all girls school where he taught for 25 years.There were many American missionaries and Jesuit priests at the Catholic convent she went to and she later went to the Canadian Academy in Kobe. And learned English. English and returned to Hiroshima as a English language teacher, There were about 30 white people in the whole city. A reason they remained in Japan as there was a Terror Brigade from Russia to hunt down Russian aristocrats. Attempts to assassinate caused the Japanese Communists to be banned in 1933.
The Japanese military hired her grandfather to teach the cadets Russian.
Japan thought by destroying the American fleet they could keep her out of the war while they captured the Philippines and oil rich Indonesia. But the dry dock maintenance shops and storage facilities were not targeted. Only 29 Japanese planes were lost against Pearl Harbour.
Her grandfather was interned as an alien but eventually released with no explanation by the Japanese authorities.
America had broken Japan's codes and knew of the battle plans.
Kalaria's brother Nick was studying in California. Did not mention that he was born in Japan and enlisted in the US army and saw action in the Pacific with troops listening to the Japanese signals.
1944 July Tojo was forced to resign and General Kuniaki Koiso replaced him; he allocated more rice and potato rations.
In the 1944 election Henry Wallace was replaced as vice President by Harry Truman. Wallace was considered too liberal by the Democrats to be President and it was realized that Roosevelt was ill and might not last his 4th term. Truman got more votes in the primary.
1945 April Franklin Roosevelt died
1945 May 8th German capitulation
.1945 July Potsdam Declaration, demanded Japanese surrender unconditionally. Japanese PM Suzuki Kantaro refused.
Leaflets were dropped telling Japanese to move out of their cities but did not specify where they would drop the bomb.
Kakura ,Hiroshimo, Yokohama Niigate and Kyoto were on the list . All cities that had not suffered bombing yet. Kyoto was removed from the list as it was a historical capital and had cultural value.
Military targets had to be attacked and Hiroshimo was a port for raw materials, had a military population of 40,000 and was a transportation hub with a total of 430,000 people.
Tinian Island is where the Enola Gay to off carrying the bomb, the island only 39 square mile and had been under the rules of Spain , Germany and Japan before the Americans. The B29 had a pressurized cabin. The target was the Aioi Bridge that spans the Honkawa and Motoyasu Rivers, the bomb was dropped at 8.15am
1945 August 6th Hiroshima atomic bomb, radius of destruction was one mile killing 80,000 initially. Their house collapsed and they were slightly hurt and started moving to the mountains. High winds of the blast caused a firestorm spreading towards the mountains. The Hiroshima mayor was killed and Field Marshal Hata stepped in to assume leadership. We get a description of the wounds and that doctors never knew how to treat them. Black radiation raindrops followed and anyone who drank his died. Ready cooked pumpkins were found in the fields.
Her family was at this stage living in a northern suburb of the city Ushita. Most of the hospitals had been destroyed.
1945 August 9th Russian troops launched a surprise attack and won against he Japanese in Manchuke
1945 August 9th Nagasaki bomb dropped It was meant for Kokura but it had cloud cover. Nagasaki had the Mitsubishi and Electrical Ship yards but many of the shockwaves were deflected by the mountains. This city had been targeted previously by bombers and was better prepared for ordinary bombing.
Once the allies guaranteed that Hirohito would remain on the throne Hirohito gave the casting vote to surrender.
6197 Shiya suicide boats packed with explosives were meant to attack US invading ships.
August 31st General Mc Author on the USS Missouri also USS Stergis next to it, Japanese foreign minister Shigemitsu signed the surrender.
Nick was one of the first to arrive with the American's and took a trainthe 420 miles from Tokyo. In Hiroshima by luck he happened to be at the place where the insurance agent was handing out money to claimants and saw his father. He organized that his sister got a job in Macarthur's staff as there was a great need for English/Japanese speakers.
80% of US air force personnel were discharged within a year.
She was one of the very few English speaking witnesses of the bomb , a hibakusha (an atomic bomb survivor.) Richard Charmers painted a picture of Kalaria called Under the Mushroom Cloud and it is on display in the Pentagon. The term Radiation Sickness is a new word from then.
1947 July Truman separated the Airforce from the army.
She met Paul Drago and came later to the US and they married in 1948. Her parents followed and as a result of the Cold War there was a demand for Russian teachers and he was one of the first to found the army Russian program/
She was interviewed on radio and met the Enola Gay crew.
George Santayana "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
1974 The US government made a donation to build the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
1986 She visited Hiroshima with her children and went to a reunion of the Woman Academy. She also heard for the first time the recordings she had made in 1945to the army on Hiroshima.
2014 Kalaria died at the age of 93 in California.
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