At thirteen Taeko Yoshioka Braid survived a moment of history that changed the world forever; the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Produced by Lynda Chanwai-Earle.

Aged just thirteen, Taeko Yoshioka Braid survived a moment of history that changed the world forever. Meet one of the last survivors of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

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Taeko Yoshioka Braid is one of our country's last surviving Japanese war brides. In 1950 while translating and singing for a living the 18 year-old met Noel Braid, a soldier with the New Zealand K-Force stationed in Kure, Hiroshima.

They married in 1952 and four years later Taeko followed Noel home to Hastings. She's lived there ever since, and at 86, has six children and many grandchildren.

But her path from Hiroshima to Hastings has not always been an easy one.

As she tells me her story, she is supported by her daughter, Sonia Yoshioka Braid.

Taeko was born in Hiroshima in 1931. She is the eldest of six with five younger brothers. Her name means "funny girl" and was given to her by her father who had big plans for his only daughter.

"My father always said I have to learn English and Chinese."

Her father was a high ranking official with the Japanese Navy and served in the port town of Kure in the Hiroshima Prefecture. He was killed during the war when his boat was torpedoed.

Aged just 12, Taeko became head of the family and scrambled to make a living to support her sick mother and five brothers.

"That was really terrible. My mother thought not very safe in Kure, so we shift to ."

Takehara is three train stops or 60 kilometres from the centre of Hiroshima. It was a decision that saved their lives.

It was late summer, August 6th 1945, during the last months of World War II. Taeko was learning how to make kimono with other girls at their substitute school in Takehara. A group of her school friends were in Hiroshima making uniforms for the soldiers.

Just after 8 o'clock the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the "Little Boy" - the world's first atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

Every moment of the day is indelibly etched into Taeko's memory.

"It went like that!" She says, slapping her hands together. "Very sharp! Very, very - spark!"

The blast has been described by other survivors as; "A blinding white light that seemed to cover the sky, an intense heat ..."

The girls ran to the windows to look. "Oh, another bomb!"

But no, says Taeko. "It not another bomb - it totally different!"…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details