It altered the script to say that the bomb alone ended the war and that an invasion would otherwise have been “inevitable.”īut even those concessions didn’t satisfy the ferocious conservative opposition. The Smithsonian revised upward the potential casualties of a thirty-day invasion from 30-50,000 to a potential of 1,000,000 dead, an astronomical figure that no serious analyst accepts. Eliminated were all references to Japan’s near-collapse even before the bomb was used and to the bomb being dropped without warning, all but one of the photos of the dead Japanese victims, many quotes by survivors, and any mention of the debate over whether dropping the bomb was necessary. The Smithsonian overhauled the script five times. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Harwit denied any intention of “criticizing or apologizing or displaying undue compassion for those on the ground that day” – implying that sorrow for the incineration of children and civilians is impermissible by the standards of militarist veterans’ groups. Harwit, the museum’s director.Īfter this storm of public condemnation and two day-length closed-door meetings with American Legion leaders, officials of the Smithsonian – the most popular museum in the world, with eight million visitors a year – back pedalled. A statement by more than twenty Congressmen called the exhibit “un-American.” Newt Gingrich said that the Smithsonian should not be a “plaything for left-wing ideologies.” Eighty Republican and Democratic Representatives called for the ouster of Martin O. The mode of attack was revived McCarthyism. they claimed it underestimated the casualties that would have been required if an invasion of mainland Japan had been required, dwelt overly long on the horrible effects of the bombs, minimized Pearl Harbor and Japanese war crimes, and impugned U.S. Late last summer, the American Legion and right-wing congressmen started to pressure the Smithsonian to change the script.
foot exhibit with a 600-page script.īut veterans’ organizations led by the American Legion have scuttled the project.
decision to drop nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Smithsonian commissioned a ten-year, $1 million renovation of the Enola Gay – the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima – which it planned to put on display as part of a 10,000 sq. IN MAY, THE Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., planned to unveil a major exhibition entitled “The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II.” Each section of the text is related to a display in the exhibition.Smithsonian Exhibit of the Enola Gay: The Incineration of History | Solidarity Smithsonian Exhibit of the Enola Gay: The Incineration of History - Christopher Phelps
Michael Heyman, at the beginning of the script address the controversy generated by the first plans and script for the exhibition that "provoked intense criticism from World War II veterans and others who felt the original planned exhibit portrayed the United States as the aggressor and the Japanese as victims and reflected unfavorably on the valor and courage of American veterans." The Museum eventually replaced the original planned exhibit with a simpler display in which the focus was on the restoration of the Enola Gay by the Smithsonian, explanatory material on the aircraft, ancillary topics related to the use of the first atomic bomb, and a video about the Enola Gay's crew. Remarks by the Smithsonian's Secretary, I. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945. This text accompanied the Smithsonian Institution's display, "Enola Gay," at the National Air and Space Museum commemorating the end of World War II and the role played by the B-29 aircraft, Enola Gay, that on Augcarried the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan.