{"id":46228,"date":"2024-02-24T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-24T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=46228"},"modified":"2024-02-24T08:00:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T16:00:44","slug":"watch-melted-by-hiroshima-blast-sold-at-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/24\/watch-melted-by-hiroshima-blast-sold-at-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Melted By Hiroshima Blast Sold at Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell\u2019s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood<\/a>.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/picture>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

You may be surprised \u2013 perhaps appalled or disgusted \u2013 that the object pictured above was sold at auction this week like any rare comic book, baseball card or painting by a past master. It is a burned, partly melted wristwatch, its hands permanently frozen in time. That time is just after 8:15, that precise moment in the morning when the first atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, dooming 150,000 (about eighty percent of them civilians) to death.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It drew a top bid of just over $31,000<\/a>, exceeding its estimate of $20,000+. The \u201cwinner\u201d is unknown. Putting it on the block, solely online, was RR Auction<\/a>, based in Amherst, NH. It was lot #428 with its listing topped with this:<\/p>\n

Hiroshima Atomic Bombing: Melted Wristwatch with Detonation Time of 8:15 AM<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s about time \u2013 rare surviving wristwatch from the blast zone of the Hiroshima bombing, frozen at the moment of detonation<\/em><\/p>\n

From the description below that: \u201cThe bomb destroyed roughly three-quarters of the city and killed tens of thousands of Japanese citizens, including, presumably, the original owner of this timepiece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s this:<\/p>\n

The consignor affirms he had been informed a British soldier recovered this watch when he was dispatched to Hiroshima to provide emergency supplies and survey post-conflict reconstruction requirements while at the Prefectural Promotion Hall in Hiroshima. In 2015, an anonymous collector offered it for sale at the JP Humbert auction house in England. It was purchased and eventually sold to the consignor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Asked for a comment on the sale, Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, said, \u201cIt is our fervent hope that this museum-quality piece will stand as a poignant educational symbol, serving to not only remind us of the tolls of war but also to underscore the profound, destructive capabilities that humanity must strive to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same auction house had previously sold:<\/p>\n