Another Canadian in Japan during the bombing

Dr Robbins’ patient was not the only Canadian in Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.¹ My husband’s grandfather, Harry Kobayashi, a Canadian businessman of Japanese origin, was living in Tokyo at the time the bombs were dropped. It is a long story; however, the important point is that as an importer of Japanese small-wares he was caught by the outbreak of war while in Japan on a buying trip. He remained in Japan at the end of the war, having been declared an enemy alien by Canada and having had his property and business confiscated in his absence. He was one of the longest-surviving Japanese-Canadian World War I veterans. He is commemorated on the Japanese-Canadian war memorial in Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC.

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