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My Dad was an aircraft mechanic and a civilian crew chief at McClellan Army Air Base during WWII. He is mentioned in the book "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" as the unnamed crew chief who the book's author, Capt. Ted Lawson, was mad at because he was revving the engines of the Ruptured Duck beyond specs while it was chocked and chained down and the props were kicking up sand and rocks that were hitting the fuselage. It was my Dad's crew's job to tune those engines to get 110% efficiency so they could make it to Tokyo and beyond. Dad's crew also worked on the Enola Gay.

A few years later, a co-worker with my Dad, one of his crew of mechanics, boarded the chase plane that had followed the Enola Gay over Hiroshima. That plane, intending to photograph the bomb damage, accidentally flew through the edge of the cloud of fallout from the bomb. While on board, my Dad's friend got some oil on his hands and picked up a rag on the plane and wiped his hands. Around 20 years later, he started developing tumors on his hands. He reported them to his supervisor after the doctor diagnosed them, and he was medically retired with full pay by that afternoon.

This guy lived about five doors down from where my Mom still lives. He lived to a ripe old age, in fact outlived my Dad who died at 85, but his hands kept producing tumors that had to be cut off. He also had extremely sensitive skin and they were easily damaged by even the lightest touch.

Radiation is nothing to play with... or to wipe one's hands with.

That is probably he grabbed the core and a sign of acute radiation sickness.I’m interested where you got the photograph because those photographs was the last time I heard to be classified. WARNING TO EVERYONE: When you are starting to get sick from acute radiation sickness, ingest salt or potassium iodide