Former US President Harry Truman used to say "presidents shouldn't have descendants; they will spend the rest of their life saying they need to live up to them".
So it is no wonder his eldest grandson Clifton Truman Daniel was confused growing up.
His parents raised him not to make a big deal of who is grandfather was and he only learnt he was president in the classroom when he was a six-year-old.
“Should I follow in his footsteps and fail? What should I do? I always felt I was caught in the middle. Being related to a president pulls you into its orbit."
It wasn’t until he was approaching 40 that he became more interested in his famous grandfather’s legacy and his decision to drop the world’s first atomic bombs in Japan during World War II.
Clifton Truman Daniel with his grandfather, Harry Truman. Source: Supplied
He has since gone to Japan to meet survivors of the attack but has also made peace with his grandfather’s decision, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Mr Daniel believes President Truman surrounded himself with smart people and did what he had to do at the time.
“The only thing that pisses me off is when people say he was duplicitous and dropped the bomb just to get the Russians,” he said.
“It was hard for him. He felt it was necessary but he didn’t like the idea of killing women and children.”
But he says his friendships with some of the Japanese survivors of the attack have brought something to his life that he wasn’t expecting.
“They are not angry or point the finger at me,” he said.
“Even if they are, we got past that. I’m not going to say it was the right decision.
“We were at war, horrible things happen. Now it’s over."
Mr Daniel, a former journalist, has tried to strike a balance between his friendship with the Japanese survivors and keeping alive President Truman’s legacy.
Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of former US president Harry Truman, lays a wreath at one of the memorial sites in Japan. Source: Insight
He was the first Truman to controversially visit the memorial sites in Hiroshima and Negasaki but is also on the board of the Truman Library and has written a small book about growing up with his grandfather.
In 2013 he went back to Japan to record survivors stories for a memoir and bought back seedlings from a tree that survived the bombing to grow in Kansas City.
“I live my life in the middle.”
Insight presents a two part special forum exploring the legacy of World War II, featuring descendants of Harry Truman, Hideki Tojo, Edward "Weary" Dunlop and others.
"Bloodlines Part 1" airs July 4, and "Bloodlines Part 2" on July 11.
