Whether US President Barack Obama should apologize sparks debate on both sides of Pacific

Two very different visions of the hell that is war are seared into the minds of World War II survivors on opposite sides of the Pacific.

Michiko Kodama saw a flash in the sky from her elementary school classroom on Aug 6, 1945, before the ceiling fell and shards of glass from blown-out windows slashed her. Now 78, she has never forgotten the living hell she saw from the back of her father, who dug her out after a US military plane dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.