DrBethM comments

If you are interested in a perspective from someone who was 14 at the time and whose personal history was deeply interwoven with issues around nuclear weapons, I recommend this article:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090805 hiroshima day america has been asleep at the wheel for 64 years/

(Note: I had to add spaces after every underline so that they would show up instead of making the text italic - take them out in your browser, or else go to http://www.truthdig.com/report/ and find the "Hiroshima Day" link.)

On the second page, he describes in detail the psychology around the dropping of the atomic bomb, how it was presented to the American public, what they knew of it beforehand (i.e., nothing), and how his perspective came to be unique but why he felt unable to express it at the time.

Anyway, I don't personally have a major axe to grind, but I thought it could lead to more of an understanding of the American culture at the time.