A different perspective from a survivor and one of the men who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. I'm not questioning Truman's decision - I think it was a damned if you do, damned if you don't type situation. That being said, I have no idea why he dropped another bomb on Nagasaki just three days later. IMO, that was more than a bit hasty.

From USAToday:

Koko Tanimoto Kondo, survivor of the bombing, said she vowed that day to find the person who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

"I wanted to kick or bite or punch this person," she said.

Some years later, in 1955, Kondo would get her chance when, on a trip to the U.S. with her family, she appeared on an NBC show called "This Is Your Life."

Also appearing on the show that day was Capt. Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the American Boeing B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.


Kondo changed her mind about revenge as she watched the show's host ask Lewis how he felt after dropping the bomb. With tears welling up in his eyes, the pilot said that he had written in his flight log on Aug. 6, 1945: "My God, what have we done?"

On the Zoom call, her voice cracking and tears welling up in her own eyes, Kondo said her encounter with Lewis made her realize she "shouldn't hate this person. If I should hate anything, I should hate the war itself."

In a follow-up email, Kondo said: "I constantly remind young people that they need to learn from history, that what happened in Hiroshima must never happen again."