August 6, 1945 at 8:15 a.m. the Enola Gay, an Air Force B-29 bomber flew over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. On board was a nuclear bomb that the US called Little Boy, ironically the Little Boy meant big trouble for Hiroshima. This Bomb was made up of 20,000 tons of TNT and 64 kg of uranium. This was the first time that a weapon of this magnitude was used by military forces. At this time the city of Hiroshima had a population of about 245,000 citizens, nearly 100,000 of them died as a result of the bombing; and about another 100,000 were wounded. The city was never the same to those who survived this horrific event, and it was something they wouldn't soon forget.

John Hersey recorded the memories and stories of the residents who survived in his book Hiroshima, published one year after the bombing. He tells his story through the words of...