“Why is it night already? Why did our house fall down? What happened?” The befuddlement of 5-year-old Myeko Nakamura moments after the first atomic bomb fell at 8:15 on the morning of Aug. And with the exception of rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran, nuclear proliferation does not seem to be a growing threat everyone is thankful that no terrorist group seems close to getting the bomb. Despite renewed tensions between the major nuclear powers and the advent of scary new technologies, no one touts the benefits of a nuclear first strike, as those satirized in the war room of black comedies like Dr. The day-to-day balance of terror that defined the 40-year Cold War between the two nuclear superpowers, the United States and Soviet Union, is long over. Despite several close calls in the past 75 years-some notorious, like the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, others known to only a few-nuclear weapons were never again used in anger after the second bomb fell on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima. True, there are reasons to turn this baleful anniversary into a moment, however brief, of self-congratulation. Seventy-five years after about 80,000 of Myeko’s neighbors died in an instant, we are, like that little girl, grateful to be alive but somewhat mystified about how it happened-and what surviving in the nuclear age really means.Ībove all we are mystified that today’s leaders aren’t doing more to prevent a greater horror than Hiroshima if anything, led by America’s history-shredding president, Donald Trump, they are making that prospect more likely. 6, 1945, as related in John Hersey’s classic account Hiroshima, remains to a large extent our befuddlement today. This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.“Why is it night already? Why did our house fall down? What happened?” The befuddlement of 5-year-old Myeko Nakamura moments after the first atomic bomb fell at 8:15 on the morning of Aug. The logbook by the co-pilots of the Enola Gay sold at Christie's for $350,000 in 2002. Being that a later copy of Einstein's relativity manuscript, rewritten in his hand 40 years after the original, sold for over 5 million dollars, we feel this log also has an historic value. This one, here offered, is not the original log used on the plane, but a later handwritten version, also entirely in the hand of Dutch Van Kirk, with all the original entries of the original log. The original Enola Gay Log made on Augwas auctioned in 2007, with an estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. Dutch Van Kirk, Navigator Enola Gay 6 Aug. As you can see on the log, the atomic bomb was dropped at 9:15 AM, Tinian time when we were at an altitude of 31,060 feet over Hiroshima. The log served its purpose as we dropped the atomic bomb both on time and on target. The target was the Aioi Bridge in Hiroshima. The purpose of the log was to record flight data I used during the flight to keep the plane on course and on time.
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On the first of three pages, Van Kirk has written, "This Navigator's log has been filled out entirely in my own hand as I did during our historic flight over Hiroshima to drop the first Atomic Bomb on August 6, 1945. Van Kirk led the Enola Gay leftward on to a 345-degree heading and began the climb to 30,800 feet.
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Each page has successive entries from the time of take-off to the return to base. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Document Signed, “Dutch Van Kirk”, as Navigator - Enola Gay, 3 pp., in graphite, August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, 23” x 9”, being a navigator's log of the Enola Gay. Navigator’s Flight Log of the Enola Gay Atomic Bomb Mission to Hiroshima Entirely Filled Out in the Hand of Dutch Van KirkĮNOLA GAY.