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OT: Another Collection Out & Finally Photographed. Hiroshima (Phoenix Collection EKL)

Hi All,

Many of you know I buy and sell artifacts and items from the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. I have collected for several years now but as the last few were consumed with other responsibilities, I was never able to find time to get things out of storage, in some cases even unpack them, and see them together. Here is a photograph of a small portion of my own Hiroshima collection. Just some artifacts - I have a lot more material from survivors autographs to signed books and original color slides. I labelled the images so you can see what you are looking at. I have NO interest in war - this is collected to show the strength of one man - Kiyoshi Kikkawa (1913-1987), who was a victim and turned his circumstances around and used his unwanted platform ("A-Bomb Victim #1" as the press dubbed him..."Joe Kikkawa") to promote peace for the rest of his life. He was among those who struggled to preserve the Dome building we all know today.

I hope you find this interesting. In time other collections will be removed from storage and photographed - posted if anyone wants to see. Very eclectic collections.

Tags: Hiroshima

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on January 14, 2022 at 6:14pm

Was very pleased to find this today. I've a small sub-collection of children playing in or near the Genbaku Dome. Some candids in b/w and one 35mm slide. Good to have another.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 20, 2024 at 1:52pm

Attached at long last, this collection is Finally completed! The photo enlarges very well. The last addition is the 1952 Korean war Hiroshima lighter on the paulownia wood box ( appropriately named, this wood is is taken from a tree called "the phoenix tree" - the phoenix is a bird that rose from it's own ashes, like Hiroshima) with a roof tile on top and a tag from 1952 from the Hotel Hiroshima.. The photo of the Hiroshima Genbaku Dome on the left was taken by Yuichiro Sasaki (1917-1980), the print on the right is from Nagasaki and was taken by Yōsuke Yamahata (山端庸介, August 6, 1917 – April 18, 1966. They are originals. The pottery is by survivor Kiyoshi Kikkawa (1913-1987), there is a photo of him in his "Atomic Shop" and his autograph on a postcard in the photograph just right of the lamp. He made the wooden box and the pottery, The melted cosmetic bottle and the melted and fused metal and the large tile in front are from Nagasaki, The rest is Hiroshima. The Ball of melted glass containing ash and carbon was collected in September 1945. There is a photograph right behind it - it is on a black base. Very few items are available from that year. Several extra Nagasaki roof tiles and tiles from the Urekami Cathedral will be auctioned off in New Hampshire at Rare and Remarkable Auctions - RR Auctions. Ihe last melted Nagasaki bottle brought $14,000! In Hiroshima the unintended target was Shima Hospital. In Nagasaki, the intended target was a Catholic Cathedral. Everyone was inside the fireball and at 11,000+ degrees all were evaporated in less than a second. The Cathedral is shown in the last photo. The large beige tile is from this Cathedral - it is just left of center front with the bronze cranes to the left. The surface is extremely blistered. The three photographs are originals. The pottery is by survivor Kiyoshi Kikkawa (1913-1987), there is a photo of him is his "Atomic Shop" and his autograph on a postcard in the photograph, He made the wooden box, the tile on top, and the pottery, The melted cosmetic bottle and the melted and fused metal and the large tile in front are from Nagasaki, The rest is Hiroshima. The Ball of melted glass containing Hiroshima ash and carbon plant material was collected in September 1945. Very few items are available from that year. The tile on the right on the stand displays the classic Atomic bomb shadow and quite a hard line between exposed and unexposed indicating very close to Zero Ground. I do hope you find this collection interesting. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on May 20, 2024 at 2:49pm

There is always a sense of accomplishment when a collection is completed or at least you decide this is where to stop. I never seem to get there since there is always one or two more to get. Very interesting items from a historic time period the links to we are rapidly losing.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 20, 2024 at 5:28pm

Hi Scott,

Thank you very much! :-) Here is a 1939 NYWF pillow sham that shows Yorktown! The connections between peace in early 1939 and Hiroshima are astonishing. See the last image - look for the Theme Buildings, the 610' Trylon and 180' Perisphere during the construction of the Trinity Bomb, on my birthday, July 16th. In 1945.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on May 20, 2024 at 6:23pm

That is amazing. I have some pillowcases like that my father got for my mother in World War II. I had a very good friend who as a boy of 12 went to the 1939 World's Fair with his parents. His father had a 16mm COLOR movie camera and took several reels of film. It was fascinating to see. I have some linen postcards somewhere of the 1939 World's Fair. I have one from the 1940 Worlds Fair that has a guy from Warren, PA who had a covered wagon with oxen and went to the Worlds Fair with them. He sold the postcards on the way. 1939 was surreal because the war was just starting to form in Europe and we knew eventually would get into it. My father was in the National Guard at the time and later went over seas.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 20, 2024 at 8:29pm

Hi Scott,

Thank you. Here are some very rare 58 x 10" Kodachrome transparencies:

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on May 21, 2024 at 4:21am

The original Kodachrome had beautiful quality and I have photographs from 1948 and 1954 that the color is as bright as ever with no shifting. Those transparencies look like they were taken yesterday. Those are really great images of the World's Fair.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 21, 2024 at 2:41pm

Thank you Scott! Some of 1939 color slide restorations can be see in an architectural text published by Yale in Conjunction with the National Building Museum. I'll check my flash drives etc. I have 27 of the Owen/Corning glass blocks above in memory of my Father Alex who can be seen in my holding me C. 1972 in my icon photo. That photo was taken at the '39 Fairgrounds. The word "GLASS" in the last image. One was displayed in Washington! It was good time.

The below View Master is early (gold foil sleeve) 1939 and fits in my 1938 model A clamshell Viewer which is oddly in working order and in it's box. Most of those are warped.