Hiroshima veteran's warning from history

Discussions on all aspects of the United States of America during the Inter-War era and Second World War. Hosted by Carl Schwamberger.
Post Reply
User avatar
Marcus
Member
Posts: 33963
Joined: 08 Mar 2002, 23:35
Location: Europe
Contact:

Hiroshima veteran's warning from history

#1

Post by Marcus » 12 Jun 2002, 19:39

Image
As India and Pakistan tentatively pull back from the brink of nuclear war, the man involved in dropping the world's first atomic bomb says he believes the legacy of Hiroshima has been pivotal in ensuring history is not repeated.
Captain Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk's comments came at an auction in San Francisco, California, where he was selling some rare items of memorabilia from the mission on 6 August 1945.
Among them were instruments, including the original master clock and sextant from the B-29 bomber aircraft 'Enola Gay', on which Mr Van Kirk was navigator.
Also under the hammer were Mr Van Kirk's semi-automatic pistol, his tunic, scrapbooks and the log he used to note the position and time that the nuclear device was dropped.
The time was 0915 and 15 seconds. Forty three seconds later, the atomic bomb called 'Little Boy' exploded over Hiroshima, destroying the city and ushering in the dawn of the Nuclear Age.
Mr Van Kirk recalled: "All we saw was a flash of light because we were going away from the bomb at the time.
"Then shortly thereafter we got two shockwaves After we were certain we weren't going to get any more of those, we turned the plane to take a look at the city."
"The first thing you spotted was a big white cloud. It was probably 40,000 feet already and around the base of that cloud the entire city of Hiroshima was covered with smoke and dust and you couldn't observe a thing down there."
...
At the sale, buyers rubbed shoulders with veterans and enthusiasts who treated Mr Van Kirk like a celebrity.
They listened to his first hand account of what it was like to be involved in a mission regarded as one of the most significant - and also one of the most awful.
...
The auction also attracted the attention of the US attorney, who put a temporary restraining order on two bomb plugs from 'Little Boy' changing hands.
They are the only surviving artefacts from the actual bomb and are owned by the Enola Gay mission's weapons test officer, Lieutenant Morris Jeppson.
The auction house said the US Attorney, acting on behalf of the government and the Smithsonian Museum, claims the plugs have not been declassified.
The sale was allowed to go ahead but the eventual owner will be decided by a court case this Friday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/ ... 040075.stm

User avatar
Phil V
Member
Posts: 1635
Joined: 21 May 2002, 13:18
Location: Australia (usually)
Contact:

Question

#2

Post by Phil V » 16 Jun 2002, 15:25

Was Mr. Van Kirk tried as a war criminal for his involvement in dropping a bomb that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians

or

was he just "following orders" as good military men must.

Hmmmm.


User avatar
Cantankerous
Member
Posts: 1277
Joined: 01 Sep 2019, 22:22
Location: Newport Coast

Re: Question

#3

Post by Cantankerous » 07 Jun 2022, 01:56

Phil V wrote:
16 Jun 2002, 15:25
Was Mr. Van Kirk tried as a war criminal for his involvement in dropping a bomb that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians

or

was he just "following orders" as good military men must.

Hmmmm.
I know this thread is 20 years old and it therefore may be tempting for me not to post here, but even though the A-bomb raid on Hiroshima in which Theodore Van Kirk took part as the navigator of the B-29 Enola Gay did create radiation sickness for many survivors of the raid, Van Kirk and other men aboard the Enola Gay were frustrated that Japan was refusing to surrender despite the B-29 carpet-bombing raids on Japan, so Truman told the Enola Gay crew that the A-bomb raids would spare the lives of American servicemen who otherwise would have lost in a planned US invasion of Japan. I'm aware that far-left peace activists continue to regard the A-bomb raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as crimes against humanity, but they don't understand that the US firebombed Japan because the Americans were repulsed by Japan's cruelty against innocent civilians. That's why none of the airmen involved in the A-bomb raid on Hiroshima were tagged as war criminals by the UN.

Post Reply

Return to “USA 1919-1945”