Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, October 1956, a group of 25 Japanese women are returning to Japan from the United States,

after a year in this country undergoing a series of reconstructive surgeries in US hospitals.

These women were known largely as the Hiroshima maidens, women in their teens who had been badly disfigured and scarred in the bombing of Hiroshima a decade or so earlier.

Now they had come to the US as part of a charitable program to provide them with cosmetic surgery

and other medical support.

They were a media sensation in the United States and moreover represented a moment way too late,

I would say, when many Americans actually confronted the consequences of what the US bombing of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki had done to Japanese citizens. So let's talk about the

arrival of these maidens, the story of the nuclear attack and more here as always

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.

Hello Jody. Hey there. And our special guest is Josh Levine of Slate.

He is among many other things the host of their series And our special guest is Josh Levine of Slate.

He is among many other things the host of their series one year

in which each season takes a look at a series of fascinating stories

from one year in American history.

The new season is 1955, which is the year that the Hiroshima

Maidens came to the United States. They have an episode about that. Josh, welcome

back to the show. It's kind of a bit of a tradition to have you whenever you have a new season of one year on to talk about a fascinating story.

So thanks for doing this.

It's a tradition I appreciate. Thank you.

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