Many British people were horrified by the Hiroshima atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, according to surveys conducted in the days and weeks after the U.S. attack.

A day after the bomb fell on Hiroshima, Mass Observation, a social research organization, sent investigators out on the streets to gauge public reactions through informal conversations.

Some people called the use of the bomb "devilish," "awful" and "dreadful," with one saying, "I think it's the most devastating thing I've ever heard."