In a 2005 column for Time Magazine, Van Kirk stood behind the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Many atomic bomb survivors, known as 'hibakusha', oppose both military and civilian use of nuclear power, pointing to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly in the Hiroshima blast and the many more who later died from radiation sickness and cancer. Historians have long been at odds over whether the twin attacks brought a speedier end to the war by forcing Japan's surrender and preventing many more casualties in a planned land invasion.
Van Kirk recalled “a sense of relief,” because he said he sensed the devastating bombing would be a turning point to finally bring the war to a close. You could see some fires burning on the edge of the city,” he added at the time. I describe it looking like a pot of black, boiling tar.
“The entire city was covered with smoke and dust and dirt. “Shortly after the second wave, we turned to where we could look out and see the cloud, where the city of Hiroshima had been. For the rest of their lives (only two still survive. The youngest was only twenty at the time. The twelve men who flew on the worlds first nuclear bombing mission in 1945 made history, as they deployed 'Little Boy' over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. 'The plane jumped and made a sound like sheet metal snapping' after the explosion, Van Kirk told The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of the raid. Nuclear Quotes: The Crew of the Enola Gay.
