Episode 53: WWII Flight Engineer Howard Cain and the Aftermath of Little Boy

The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Howard Cain was so eager to serve in WWII that he forged his parents’ signatures to enlist at 17 toward the end of the war. Later, as a flight engineer on a B-29 Superfortress following Japan’s surrender, Cain was aboard a reconnaissance flight over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What he saw has stuck with him to this day.