Outside the window was a grim scene of what had once been a playground. Not one child even glanced at me, all keeping their complete attention on the instructor, who also ignored me a simply continued his lecture. Feeling very out of place, I quickly took my photographs and left.

From: O'Donnell, Joe. Japan 1945: A U.S. Marine's Photographs from Ground Zero. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2005; 73.