GUEST: These are some
memorabilia from World
War II that I got from
my father. He joined

the Army and joined the Medical
Corps 361st station hospital,
which went to the Philippines.

After Japan surrendered,
they sailed up Hiroshima
Bay and stopped in
Kure, where there was a

naval hospital. They were just
ten miles from Hiroshima, which
had just been bombed three

weeks earlier. And when
they went up to Hiroshima
to provide medical care,
they found complete

devastation. Everything was
glazed. And in the rubble,
he found these artifacts left

over that had not been
completely destroyed
but had been blasted
with sand that turned

to glass from the intense
heat of the explosion.

APPRAISER: When you opened the
box and you brought these out,
it was immediately evident

to me what they were. It's a
little amazing to think that
here were American G.I.s in

and amongst the survivors
fairly soon after the fact. When
you look at an artifact like

this, it has a profound impact
on you. You realize this was
there. This was in Hiroshima

when that bomb went off. This
was in somebody's house. I've
heard the explanation that it

was dust and things in the air
that were turned to glass, I've
also come across individuals

who support the idea that it
was glass that melted that was
in the vicinity of the objects.

Every once in a while,
an artifact really
speaks to you. Just by
looking at that artifact,

that tells what you need to
know about the atomic explosion
at Hiroshima. And that's,

that's why it raised the hair
on my arm when you brought
it out of the box, and that's

one of the reasons why it
is profoundly important
that these artifacts
exist in the world, and

it's also a reason why people
would be upset that there would
be a value associated with

them. Because of the horrendous
nature of the event that
happened. Artifacts like this

are sought out by collectors
and museums in order to tell
that story. From a monetary

value perspective today, a
retail price for these on the
market would be between $2,000

and $3,000.

Guest: Mm-hmm.