This is Science Friday. I'm John Dankoski. I'm sitting in for Ira this week.

After many months of build-up, Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster, Oppenheimer, is here.

It tells the story of Jay Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. A man whose work ushered in the atomic age and changed the world forever.

So with the release of this film, we're bringing you a live edition of Science Goes to the Movies, looking back at 80 years of nuclear history.

We're going to explore how the first atomic bombs were built, how Oppenheimer led the charge, and what happened when they were deployed.

Now nobody understands this legacy more than our first guest, for whom Oppenheimer's work is all too personal.

Setsuko Thurlow is a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

She's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and an anti-nuclear activist.

Ira got a chance to speak with her earlier this week and she joined him from Hiroshima.

Now this conversation may have some graphic and disturbing details, so please take care while listening.

Setsuko, welcome to Science Friday.

Well, thank you very much for inviting me. Thank you.

You're welcome. Can you describe for us your memory of August 6, 1945?

Yes. I was a 30-year-old grade eight student in the girl's junior high school.

In those days, in Japan was losing badly against the United States,

and we were mobilized and recruited and mobilized to do the work for Army.

So, that day, I happened to be a senior by Army headquarters.

I learned how to record secret messages for the Army.

Can you imagine a 30-year-old girl engaging in that kind of task?

Anyway, about 30 of us were at the Army headquarters.

And at eight o'clock in the morning, and we started the morning

apparently, and then at that moment, I saw the blue-ish white flag in the window,

...