The Enola Gay Controversy - About - Overview

Contents:

• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• WHY DID THE ENOLA GAY’S TAIL MARKGS CHANGE?
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY
• CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN

HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON

The exhib markg the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II featurg the refurbished B-29 Enola Gay proposed by the Smhsonian's Natnal Air and Space Mm rulted fierce ntroversy over how history should reprent droppg an atom bomb on Japan. Experience the evolutn of the Enola Gay ntroversy by readg through a chronologil list of documents divid to five rounds:. The ntroversy over how the Enola Gay should reprent history gradually be history self.

Enola Gay, the B-29bomber that was ed by the Uned Stat on Augt 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive vice had been ed on an enemy target.

Tman was rmed of the velopment while attendg the Potsdam Conference, and he turn told Soviet lear Joseph Stal that the Uned Stat had “a new weapon of unual stctive force.” On July 26 the Allied lears lled for Japan to unndnally surrenr or face “prompt and utter stctn.” After Japan ignored the mand, the cisn was ma to bomb Hiroshima.At approximately 2:45 am on Augt 6, 1945, Tibbets—who was now a full lonel—and a crew of 11 took off om Tian island rryg a uranium bomb that was known as “Ltle Boy.” The Enola Gay—Tibbets had a matenance man pat that name on the aircraft’s nose shortly before takeoff—was acpanied by var other plan. Tibbets flew the Enola Gay back to Tian, where he was award the Distguished Service Cross.

WHY DID THE ENOLA GAY’S TAIL MARKGS CHANGE?

Three days later the Enola Gay nducted weather rennaissance the lead-up to the bombg of Nagasaki, Japan. Japan officially surrenred on September 2, 1945.The Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949.

In 2003 the fully rtored Enola Gay was put on display at the NASM’s Steven F.

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). Yet the Enola Gay, another animate object, had a dark tentn — the vice was schled to drop an atomic bomb on an enemy target. It's important to note that durg the war, not many plan which were mass-produced were given as much fanfare, so the Enola Gay stood out om the pack.

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

Pilot Pl Tibbets nam Enola Gay. On Augt 5, 1945, the 29-year-old Tibbets formally named his B-29 "Enola Gay" after his mother (née Haggard). The Enola Gay name liv on.

In 1995, the Natnal Air and Space Mm hosted a ntroversial exhib of the Enola Gay to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. The fully reassembled Enola Gay is now on display permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F. The Enola Gay 2003, shortly after movg to the Steven F.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

Stan Harris of Brighton, Colorado, wr wh a qutn about the Enola Gay, the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Augt 6, 1945. The Enola Gay tail markg was changed om the circle-arrow to circle-R, which was the markg for the 6th Bomb Group, 313th Wg, North Field, Tian. Krss not that while three B-29s of the 509th did have a square-P tail mark (which stood for the 39th Bomb Group, 314th Wg, North Field, Guam) while on Tian, the Enola Gay was not among them.

The Enola Gay and other 509th bombers also had the last two digs of their serial numbers pated on the nose and on the felage near the tail.

The Enola Gay is number 82. It’s possible, Krss says, that the Enola Gay might have had a P on s tail when flew as one of 13 B-29s performg weather and radlogil rennaissance missns Operatn Crossroads, the atomic bomb tts at Biki atoll July 1946, “but not durg s time on Tian. After the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

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.

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.

CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN

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.

Seventy-five years ago, the Uned Stat dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, brgg an end to a long and vastatg World War II and makg the Enola Gay, the B-29 that livered , one of the most famo history.