Woman who survived Pearl Harbor bombing recalls V-J Day celebrations
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RAYTOWN, Mo. (KCTV/KSMO) — Saturday marked 75 years since V-J Day. That was when Japan surrendered, bringing World War II to an end.
One local woman was there for the celebrations that happened that day and she also witnessed the devastation that came before it.
“I am a World War II child survivor of the bombing of Pearl Harbor,” she Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson.
Nicholson spent her childhood in Hawaii where her mother was born. Her father was from Missouri.
Her memories of the bombing of Pearl Harbor are strong. Her memories of when Japan surrendered are just as vivid.
“I will never forget August 15,” she said. “That was the day that Japan decided, agreed, made the decision to surrender to the United States.”
Nicholson’s mother had just finished up hula lessons and the two got into their car to head home. She remembers the celebrations.
“I’m 10 years old,” she recalled. “I am happy, but I’m scared because of all the firecrackers that are going off under our car.”
She said she’ll never forget the sight of one of our soldiers standing in the dark near her home, alone and overwhelmed with emotion that the war was over.
“I can’t hear him cry, mom and I are too far away, but I can see from his shoulders that he’s sobbing,” she said.
Nicholson wants to share her story, her memories, and moments in time of our history that many of us weren’t even alive for.
A proud American, she said she’ll continue to share those memories for the rest of her life.
“So how did it change my life? I can tell your kids the stories and then want them to ask their parents grandparents, ‘What was it like for you growing up?’” she said.
Nicholson also said she’ll be sending copies of her book “Pearl Harbor Warrior” to those on the USS Missouri.
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