What Happened to the Enola Gay After Hiroshima? | Time

Contents:

• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE REAL MEANG BEHD THE NAME ENOLA GAY, THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

Tibbets, Jr., pilotg the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. The ntroversy over how history should reprent droppg an atom bomb on Japan me to a head 1994 when the Smhsonian's Natnal Air and Space Mm drafted an exhib entled "The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War" around the refurbished Enola Gay to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the war 1995. And the whole episo ntu to be a flash pot among the fatigable belligerents of the so-lled "culture wars, " flarg aga, for stance, 2003 when the Enola Gay was put on permanent display a new Smhsonian mm.

Th, the pag that follow enable ers to experience -- some sense to relive -- the evolutn of the Enola Gay ntroversy by readg through a chronologil list of documents divid to five "rounds. Did the Japane Empire attempt to shoot down the Enola Gay? After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug.

The Enola Gay is a B-29 Superfortrs, which pilot Pl Tibbets named after his mother, and which had been stripped of everythg but the necsi, so as to be thoands of pounds lighter than an ordary plane of that make. While did not drop the bomb on Nagasaki, the Enola Gay did take flight to get data on the weather the lead-up to the send strike on Japan. In the aftermath of World War II, the Army Air Forc flew the Enola Gay durg an atomic tt program the Pacific; was then livered to be stored an airfield Arizona before beg flown to Illois and transferred to the Smhsonian July 1949.

THE REAL MEANG BEHD THE NAME ENOLA GAY, THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB

But even unr the ctody of the mm, the Enola Gay remaed at an air force base Texas. The Commtee for the Rtoratn and Display of the Enola Gay now has 9, 000 signatur of prott. Adams, who is leavg his job after 10 relatively ntroversy-ee years, sent back a three-page answer stiffly turng down her requt for the Enola Gay.

Demonstrators prott at the Enola Gay exhib at the the Smhsonian Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F. And as long as is on display, the qutns rais are likely to ntue — after all, they have been wh the Enola Gay sce first beme a hoehold name. Why uldn't Japan shoot down the B-29 plan Enola Gay and Bocksr rryg the nuclear bombs when they entered their air space durg World War II?

However, several plane nam of the World War II-era are known exclively by their name, cludg the famo Enola Gay, a B-29 bomber that was ed to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (via Branni).