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Here is a sample of glass recovered immediately after the Hiroshima bomb was detonated. This was found in one of the very few steel reinforced concrete buildings left. To have anything with provenance back to 1945 is extremely unusual. I show a composite of the documentation I gathered and a detail of the Spectrometer reading that shows this to be authentic. In the fourth photograph you can see some of the carbonized window sill still inside the glass fragment.
"...My father was in the occupation force in Japan after they surrendered. He was in Hiroshima, walking the perimeter of the atomic blast. He went into a building, and hanging from the inside window sills were "icicles" of melted glass, but the building itself was far enough away to remain standing. He broke off several pieces and kept them until the day he died..."- Gary Hall recollecting his father Robert E. Hall's words.
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There literally has to be an entire city's worth of wreckage and I assume it took years to clear it all. What did they do with the debris after the bombing? Was it buried in a landfill or dumped at sea?
The debris was initially 15 feet deep covering several square miles. It was cleaned up so quickly that trams were running, albeit short distances, the next day. In less than a year the streets were clear for cars and people. This was a matter of pride. Most debris was quickly discarded. Like items from the Hindenburg or the Titanic/Lusitania, they were just novel items of the day.
Here are some of my items in my "new" 1890 home (still being redone).
Here is an original print of mother and child, a very famous Hiroshima photograph, a home wire nut 1951, a long Kawara roof tile fragment, a small bit of vitrified brick, a fragment of a blue and white plate 1950/51, a sculpture of the Genbaku Dome made C. 1952 from from local materials, a boxed roof tile from Kikkawa's shop 1950/51, the bit of window glass 9/1945, and a tile showing dramatic blistering and shadows along with the more gently blistered tile from the box shown. All 1950/51 material sold at Kiyoshi Kikkawa'a Atomic Souvenir Shop, which is seen in the smaller photograph shown in another part of this thread.
Here, on the top shelf, is a bronze C. 1900 bronze Spinario (nude boy with thorn in foot), a bronze Trylon and Perisphere under the glass dome (from my parents anniversary clock), a pink Lennox 1939 NYWF cigarette holder, and several artifacts from Nagasaki including a very rare melted cosmetics bottle.
Here is Kikkawa standing in front of his (last) Atomic Souvenir Shop (sale scan). This photograph is 1952 - by 1953 he started gaining weight back. Note his hand. You can see how he is forced to hold a brush in the shop image above where is signing the autobiography.
You can double click to read his sign:
Here a May 7th, 1915 Lusitania Elgin pocket watch mechanism in its case ("green") recovered in September of 1982, Edison's 1879 lightbulb (working duplicate made at the GE building at the 1939 New Yoek World's Fair), Elkington of Birmingham silver spoons from Cunard's big 3 (Lusitania 1909, Mauretania MV 1907 and Aquitania 1913), a C.1900 German postcard viewer showing Lusitania on a Davidson Bros. RP card and a lot more. You can see a bit of Lusitania's hull inside the walnut pocket watch box made from Mauretania's paneling in 1936 when she was scrapped. A glass 1907 Mauretania paperweight from her barber shop...The fan is a rare paper souvenir from the Japan Pavilion at the 1939 NYWF. This is just how I am decorating my parlor. There is a lot more to go! I thought some might find my eclectic tastes interesting.
Clicking will enlarge this tremendously.
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