Julia Canny

Julia Canny (1894–1987) was an Irish Sister of the Holy Souls who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Early life

Julia Canny was born to a poor farming family in Clonbur, Co. Galway in 1894. She only had a fifth-grade education. Canny emigrated to the US in 1921, joining the Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls in New York in 1933. She embarked for Japan in 1939 from San Francisco. After Pearl Harbor, she was interned on the presumption of being an American, but released after six months when it was demonstrated by the Swiss ambassador that she was an Irish citizen.

Later life

Canny never returned to Ireland, and was bed-ridden for the last years of her life. She died on 1 November 1987 in Tokyo.