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Hiroshima Survivor Kiyoshi Kikkawa Earliest Signature I Have Seen 1951 Still in Red Cross Hospital

Hi All,

Many of you know I collect artifacts, bits...of buildings, melted roof tiles, melted windows with wood in them, fused ceramic and metal, blasted electrical bits with aggregate...things from the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing. That blast stuff is very hard to authenticate. I also collect Survivor autographs - the closer to 1945 the better. Of the many signatures I have, even from this one man, and the many I have examined, this is the earliest yet by a full year. It's a man whose material I collect seriously.

Kiyoshi Kikkawa opened a "souvenir shop" near the Dome in mid-late 1951 and spoke and traveled and was a great proponent of peace. He helped to preserve the Dome. Shown below is him in the Red Cross hospital in 1946 or '47, the earliest signature I have seen, him after this still in the Red Cross Hospital (he left in April 1951 citing poor food and treatment), him signing his autobiography in his "Atomic Shop" near the Genbaku Dome 1953, the autobiography, signed and stamped, a rare snapshot from June,1952 showing him being photographed by solders - he had a badly flash-burned back with keloid formations I won't show here, and he would expose it ceremoniously for anyone who asked, and - a rare color slide of his shop in about 1954. Click to see entire image.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on February 13, 2021 at 7:01am

Another addition to my collection - a new variety (this on a postcard) of his shop stamp (bottom). Also a new version of his "Dome" stamp:

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Permalink Reply by Greg on June 18, 2021 at 1:28pm

I just read with great interest your fascinating thread on Hiroshima Eric! (Thanks for the link!)...Just wondering, you show the energy given off by the Europium, but did your friend tell you the activity (in Sv or Bq) that your individual samples gave off? The reason I ask is that I am also a collector of wartime artifacts and have a RAF issue cockpit clock whose radioactive luminescent dials and numbers still give off quite a bit of activity! (Enough that I keep it in a box in the corner of my basement!)

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on June 19, 2021 at 9:32am

Hello,

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it :) No, but I did not ask. I do know these items are safe to handle.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on December 18, 2021 at 10:02am

RARE photographic provenance photo of glass in Hiroshima. The man I bought this and other glass fragments (tested and showing Europium=Hiroshima) were from his father. who collected them immediately in 1945 which his paperwork proves, down to the ship. He described "...rivers of glass running down the walls..." in a steel reinforced concrete buiding near Zero Ground (there were a very few).

Below is a photo of my large glass fragment which and carbonized wood/sill in it, and a photograph from 1945 showing what was described. I showed this image to the man and he said "...that is exactly what my father described..."

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on December 18, 2021 at 10:11am

And here is a new photograph of Gov. Earl Warren and Kiyoshi Kikkawa in 1951:

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on March 25, 2022 at 4:01pm

This is a complete collection of ten artifacts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Took me about 2 years to assemble. for a customer in Europe. This is a better than average collection with some very neat items. Two tiles and fused metal from the Urekami Cathedral in Nagasaki. Two nice bits of flash deformed glass from Nagasaki. The partial plate is quite pretty and the foot is intact, The rest are various roof tiles from Hiroshima.

Click 3X for larger images.