Lilly Krohn: Out of Suffering Have Emerged the Strongest Souls
Based on her testimony, this series depicts the life of Lilly Krohn, who was born in Japan and experienced her life change forever due to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. After WWII, Lilly moved to the United States as the wife of an American soldier and later became a U.S. citizen. Her story also includes details of her on-going health complications as a result of exposure to the bomb's radiation.
Stories from this series
Part 5—Return to Japan and Final Days
Aug. 21, 2022 • Jon Stroud
Read Part 4 >> Lilly, upon thinking back, believed she lost at the very least 20 relatives in the bombing and, since moving to the U.S., has returned to Japan as many times as possible to see her remaining family. The Krohn family, including daughter Carol, visited for the first and only time at age 21, seeing the significance of her mother’s lineage and homeland as it related to her own life. Lilly’s father, Matajiro, had kept an American doll …
Part 4—U.S. Citizenship, Family, and Brink of Death
Aug. 14, 2022 • Jon Stroud
Read Part 3 >> Becoming a U.S. citizen is a reality many Americans take on without appreciation and, be that as it may, Lilly had one of her proudest moments in 1960 when that dream came true for her. She laughed while telling the story of passing the citizenship exam issued by a judge, experiencing some possible divine help of answering the question of the date of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. She easily knew the answer because the former 16th president shared …
Part 3—The Bomb’s Aftermath, U.S. Occupation, and Finding Love
Aug. 7, 2022 • Jon Stroud
Read Part 2 >> Many treating the wounded in the first few weeks after the blast had not experienced early signs of radiation poisoning, so they believed that they were amid a dysentery outbreak. Survivors presenting no external issues other than singed hair suddenly had blisters or lost hair, including their eyebrows. Also, they began to vomit blood and bleed from their skin and areas of nose, ears, and gums. Thousands became stricken with purple skin spots caused by excessive bleeding …
Part 2—The Explosion: Rapid Destruction and Loss of Life
July 31, 2022 • Jon Stroud
Read Part 1 >> The plummeting bomb missed its aiming point, a T-shaped bridge below with pronounced visibility from the sky by 800 ft, being pushed off course by a hard crosswind. It descended nearly 6 miles in 43 seconds until erupting at 1,900 ft. over a nearby hospital, just 500 ft. from the Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall, sending out a multidirectional airburst of uncontrollable energy throughout the predominantly flat landscape. Lilly along with her mom were soon trapped underneath …
Part 1—The Build-Up and Then Late for Work
July 24, 2022 • Jon Stroud
Lilly Krohn, of Laconia, Indiana on most sunny days could be seen working out in her garden or taking care of her yard, enjoying some of Southern Indiana’s beauty at the same time. She moved forward in life keeping focus on all the positives and the many blessings she had been given. Lilly was from a different generation, one that has rapidly dwindled every day to very few survivors, the World War II generation. This is a generation of people …
