 "Photo: Kim Hahn")
On April 14, students, visitors and staff crowded together into the Biology Building Lecture Hall to see and hear Captain Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, navigator of the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress bomber.
Van Kirk, 89, is the only survivor of the bomber that flew the 1945 mission to drop the first atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima. This is his second time speaking at UWG.
Members of UWG’s history department made Van Kirk’s opening introduction, including Dr. Jonathon Goldstein and Steve Goodson, chairman of the history department.
Van Kirk was welcomed by applause.
“Hope everyone’s here, ‘cause no one else can get in!” Van Kirk joked, breaking the tension in the hushed room.
“I don’t have anything prepared,” said Van Kirk. “I never do. I just talk off the top of my head.”
He spoke about his crew members and made joking, sarcastic remarks about the government and his early military career, including his 58 missions in Africa. His jokes kept the audience at ease, while enabling them to pay rapt attention to his words. But his lecture wasn’t strictly comedic.
“The world was a vastly different place,” said Van Kirk.
He explained to the audience that over 16 million people were in the armed forces during the 1940s, most of which were drafted without exemption. Van Kirk explained that he was approached to be the navigator of the Enola Gay while he was on leave in New Orleans. He was told that this mission would significantly shorten or end the war, to which he responded, “I’ve heard that before.”
President Truman approved the use of the atomic bomb, a uranium-235 operated weapon, after negotiations with Japan failed near the end of July, 1945. On Aug. 6, the Enola Gay bomber took off, heading for Japan.
Van Kirk explained that the B-29 bomber had to be stripped down to only bare essentials for its flight, leaving the plane 6000 pounds lighter. The mission began at 2:45 a.m. from the island of Tinian, 80 miles north of the island of Guam. Upon arrival over the city of Hiroshima, the bomb was released from the bomb bay doors and fell towards the earth. The plane immediately banked to the right to get away from the coming blast.
According to Van Kirk, it took the uranium bomb 43 seconds to explode, at which it was about 1800 feet about the ground. The shockwave rocked the Enola Gay as it flew away and the detonation released the famous mushroom cloud 42,000 feet into the air. The blast decimated all of Hiroshima and even from the plane, Van Kirk said that he was unable to see the city through the giant, black clouds.
Van Kirk was debriefed later that day, with his other comrades. During this time the second atom bomb exploded on Nagasaki, several miles from its original target of Kokura.
Van Kirk concluded his lecture with a question and answer session. Dr. Megumi Fujita, an assistant chemistry professor at UWG, stood up to give her thoughts. She explained that she was of Japanese descent and had mixed emotions on attending the lecture. Other audience members also stood to express their emotions, but many of the questions pertained to Van Kirk’s experiences and his ideas about the military.
There were many humorous questions as well, as the night drew to a close. One woman asked Van Kirk if he had ever met a US president.
“No,” said Van Kirk. “And thank God!”
He left the audience members with a funny warning about film director James Cameron, who purchased rights to a story about the bombings.
“If you see James Cameron make a movie about the atomic bombings, don’t believe it!” Van Kirk warned.
The event was informative to those who attended.
“This was extremely insightful to listen to,” said nursing major Sarah Conklin. “I never thought I would get the chance to meet someone of this much importance in history.”
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