Twelve-year old Sadae Kasaoka (birth name Hiraoka), a first-year student at a girls’ high school, was at home with her grandmother on Aug. 6, 1945, enjoying a beautiful morning and doing housework because she had not been mobilized for war work.

On the 80th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, survivors continue searching for remains and healing—and Americans remain divided over whether the bombings were justified.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later brought a scale of destruction the world had never seen. Many who survived the blasts died in the weeks, months and years that followed.