"You know how you see the bright sun that's going down on a very hot day? Bright red -- orange red. That's what it was like," she recalls. "After we heard a big noise like a 'BOONG!' 'BOONG!' Like that. That was the sound." This terrorizing recollection from Tomiko Morimoto who was 13 on On August 6, 1945 when the United States detonated the first atomic weapon for the purpose of war on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The decision to drop the atomic bomb is the most extreme act of war in the history of the world and thus, is filled with controversy. Was President Harry Truman justified in his decision to drop the atomic bomb? The United States had been fighting a harsh and brutal war against Japanese since the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.…show more content… In Truman’s mind, the 1,000,000 projected American lives lost not including the countless other lives lost were not worth the objective. The city of Hiroshima was chosen as the first target because it was the headquarters for the second large general army. Due to a large amount of Japanese civilians living in neighborhoods near Hiroshima, leaflets were dropped that warned the citizens of impending doom and their rejection of the Potsdam Declaration (“Was the Atomic Bombing”). The second warning from the United States to Japan of the impending doom was rejected and on August 6th, 1945 the first atomic bomb, “Little Boy,” was dropped. The bomb’s explosion carried more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and visible for more than 200 miles (“Atomic Bomb-Truman”). Three days later, on August 9th, 1945 there was no response from Japan. A second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” was dropped on port in Nagasaki, killing thirty-six thousand and injury sixty-thousand. Not to respect those that perished in the dropping of both atomic bombs, but the number of those died in comparison to the amount that would have been killed if a full-scale war would have broken out. By dropping the atomic bomb, the United States completed her objective without a significant loss of American lives when on August 15th, 1945 Japan accepted the Potsdam…show more content… While, the psychological and physical damages went on for generations. The explosions caused severe injuries. There were countless cases of deep burns from the explosion. Radiation related diseases came about started to come out years after the bombings. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation have found that early symptoms of exposure to the bomb included fatigue, vomiting, nausea, high fevers, bleeding from the gums, diarrhea, and cataracts. Mutations caused by radiation led to an increase in birth defects in the next generation of Hiroshima descendants. Several infants who were in the mother's womb at the time of attacks were born with severe mental disabilities. Survivors of the attacks had a much higher rate of cancer and tumors. (Chaitin, Et