In 1950 US president Harry S Truman was asked about the possible use of an atomic weapon in the Korean War. "It is a terrible weapon, and it should not be used on innocent men, women and children who have nothing whatever to do with this military aggression," he replied, adding "That happens when it is used." In Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War, Susan Southard tells the stories of five people who were in the city when it was bombed on 9 August 1945 and who survived into old age.