" The all-clear siren alerts the people who took shelter at the Hatchobori streetcar station that they can now emerge. Twenty-year-old Akiko Takakura is a cautious young woman, but she now resumes her journey to the Geibi Bank, where she does secretarial work. The bank, with its stone walls and armored window coverings that let in almost no light, is less than a half mile from the T-shaped Aioi Bridge spanning the Ota River—what will soon be ground zero. Three days ago, the clock tower at Hiroshima University stopped working at precisely 8: 15. The city lacks the spare parts and material to fix it, so the great clock looking down on all of Hiroshima remains frozen in time. As Akiko enters the lobby of her workplace, she notices that the bank clock in the lobby is just a few moments away from striking 8: 15. It is an omen Akiko will never forget. "

― Bill O'Reilly , Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan