Bluffton resident saw Hiroshima aftermath

Darvin Luginbuhl described what he saw of the Aug. 6, 1945, destruction

Bluffton native Darvin Luginbuhl witnessed the devastation of the Japanese city of Hiroshima, destroyed on Aug. 6, 1945, by an atomic bomb.

The Bluffton News used Luginbuhl’s brief description in a short news item in early 1946. He

Here’s the News item about Hiroshima:

Of course you read about Hiroshima, that Japanese city which was devastated by a single atom bomb which was followed shortly by the end of the war.

But the most graphic description couldn’t do justice to facts, says T/3 (Technician Third Class) Darvin Luginbuhl, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. B. Luginbuhl of Kibler Street who saw the place.

Luginbuhl, now discharged from the Army says the city, roughly about the size of Toledo, looked like Lima’s Hotel Milner after the fire which burned it to the ground.

The devastation and destruction were simply indescribable.

Hiroshima

On Aug.6, and 9, 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.

The aerial bombings together killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

Japan surrendered to the Allies on Aug. 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan and invasion of Japanese-occupied Manchuria. The Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender on Sept. 2, 1945, effectively ending the war.

Milner Hotel fire

In 1945, the Milner Hotel burned in downtown Lima.

The hotel was originally known as the Norval Hotel and was at North and Main streets.

The huge fire killed two people as it grew to include Eckerd’s Drug Store, the Hudson Restaurant and more.

Fire Chief Harry Taflinger had a heart attack at the scene and had to be taken to a hospital, but before that he saw the severity of the blaze and asked the city editor of The Lima News to call fire departments from Wapakoneta, Delphos and Kenton.

The scene of people screaming from windows was horrific, according to the Lima News. The fire was eventually extinguished, but the intersection was a mess for months. Bus service was rerouted to avoid the area. A cause was never found.

Photos of LIma's 1945 Hotel Milner fiie