In this photo taken June 10, 2015, a 1950 paper and Indian ink artwork called ìGhostî is displayed at the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, in northwest Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2015, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The exhibition is opening on June 13th.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A pocket watch that stopped at 8:15 a.m. when the first atomic bomb dropped. The lunch box of a girl who disappeared without trace.

As the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, American University Museum in Washington, D.C., is showcasing artifacts and art recalling the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At a time of intensifying focus on Japan's reluctance face up to its militaristic past, the exhibition provides a different perspective on the end of the conflict — one in which Japanese were the victims.

That has the potential to upset American veterans. Defenders of the use of the atomic bomb say it alleviated the need for a land invasion of Japan that would have cost many American lives. The precise death tolls from the bombings are unknown, but it is believed about 200,000 died.

On the 50th anniversary of the bombings, a fierce controversy surrounded an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945. The 1995 exhibit was dramatically scaled back because of veterans' protests that it portrayed the Japanese as victims rather than as aggressors.That year, Peter Kuznick, director of the university's Nuclear Studies Institute, responded to the controversy by staging an exhibition the Smithsonian wouldn't. Doing so at a private institution, and not a government-funded one, made it less contentious.

American University Museum in Washington, D.C., is showcasing artifacts and art recalling the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.associated press