U.S. strategists wanted to flatten an entire city with a single atomic bomb: Hiroshima was the right size.; Credit: /AP

President Obama is close to wrapping up his weeklong trip to Asia.

He’s in Japan Thursday and on Friday he will be making a historic visit to Hiroshima. He’s the first sitting president to visit the city which was devastated by an atomic bomb during World War II

Last year, on the 70th anniversary of the bombing, we spoked to Jack Dairiki, a Californian who was living in Hiroshima at the time, and he described that day for us as one that began like any other. 

Japanese American survivor of Hiroshima retells his story

May Yamaoka was also there when the bombing happened. She is now 87-years-old and living in El Cerrito, California. She was among those who also survived and remembers being ushered into a bomb shelter. 

“The people who were sitting by the windows…they got burned on the one side of their face. We were standing inside of the building by the machinery so it became really dusty and the walls - the inside walls fell. We didn’t know about it until the dust cleared and we got up to go outside.”

Once she went outside she saw the aftermath of the bombing and realized what had happened to the city.  

“It’s hard to describe what I saw..imagine the blisters that were so huge and and the skins hanging down and I seldom talk about it because I just can’t relive it,” says Yamaoka. 

She will be watching the President’s visit closely and hopes he will realize the extent of the damage.