For most students at the University of California at Los Angeles, exposure to the human element of nuclear warfare has been limited to discussions in history classes or textbook entries on World War II.
"It's so little -- what we get in our textbooks, you know the bombs dropped and how they worked, but you don't really know what happened on the ground," said Navdeep Tumbler, a biology and French student.
The 21-year-old is also a member of UCLA's Cultural affairs commission, which last Thursday helped present the opening reception of the "Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Exhibition" at UCLA's Kerckhoff Art Gallery.
Organized by renowned artist and writer Fumiko Kometani, the nine-day exhibit marks the 60th anniversary of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a series of dramatic photographs, science diagrams and artwork.