Erwin Johns

Seaman Second Class Erwin Johns was born in Milford Township in 1925. During WWII he served in the Navy and was stationed on the small island of Tinian. As a hobby he photographed many of the planes landing on the airstrip he helped to construct. Toward the end of the war he photographed the Enola Gay and Bockscar.

The Enola Gay was the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. This was the first incident of a nuclear device being used in warfare.

Erwin Johns was stationed on the island of Tinian in the days leading up to the dropping of the atomic bombs. Johns took hundreds of photos during his time in the Pacific and managed to photograph the Enola Gay before its famous mission.

Bockscar (or Bock’s car) is the plane that dropped the second atomic bomb on Japan. The second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. This was the last nuclear weapon ever used in warfare.

Bockscar was one of many planes to land on the island of Tinian. Brown County native Erwin Johns was stationed on the island and photographed the plane as well as hundreds of others.