The Enola Gay's History Liv On > U.S. Department of Defense > Blog

Contents:

• THE ENOLA GAY
• CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY
• TOURG THE SMHSONIAN AIR AND SPACE MM’S ENOLA GAY EXHIB
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• ENOLA GAY
• THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’
• WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?
• THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• GAY MUNICH

THE ENOLA GAY

While this exhib is now closed, Mm specialists ntued to rtore the remag ponents of the airplane, and after an addnal ne years the fully assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Steven F.

This past exhibn, cidg wh the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, told the story of the role of the Enola Gay securg Japane surrenr.

CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN

Another portn of the exhib tailed the pastakg efforts of Smhsonian aircraft rtoratn specialists who had spent more than a rtorg parts of the Enola Gay for this exhibn. This remote sert landspe was a specialized trag base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews, cludg the 509th Compose Group and B-29 Enola Gay un who rried the atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. See some of the most remarkable ary history Nevada at the Historic Wendover Air Field mm, where you n tour masterfully rtored World War II-era buildgs like the Enola Gay B-29 hangar, atomic bomb loadg ps, and see uniforms, medals, propellers and more.

Suated ls than a e om Wendover, Utah along the Nevada borr, the origal Wendover Air Force Base was where the Enola Gay crew traed for their missn to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the send World War. This exhibn, cidg wh the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, tells the story of the role of the Enola Gay securg Japane surrenr. Another portn of the exhib tail the pastakg efforts of Smhsonian aircraft rtoratn specialists who had spent more than a rtorg parts of the Enola Gay for this exhibn.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

Mm specialists ntued to rtore the remag ponents of the airplane, and after an addnal ne years the fully assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Steven F.

Tibbets, Jr., mand of the Superfortrs Enola Gay, dropped a highly enriched uranium, explosn-type, "gun-fired, " atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. For the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Natnal Air and Space Mm (NASM) proposed an exhibn that would clu displayg the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortrs that was ed to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. The Enola Gay had recently fished beg renovated and the mm had been ncerned about transportatn and reassemble fe; therefore, the proposed annex appeared to be a ftg lotn.

Commtee member Admiral Noel Gayler believed that any exhibn of the Enola Gay would imply “that we are celebratg the first and so far the only e of nuclear weapons agast human begs. While they were “unanimo agreeg that the Enola Gay is an artifact of pivotal signifince and that should be exhibed, ” they asked the mm to avoid discsg the cisn to drop the bomb and to nsir an alternative se, such as an armed servic mm. On Augt 6, 1945, the crew of a modified Boeg B-29 Superfortrs named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ed warfare, lled “Ltle Boy, ” on the cy of Hiroshima, Japan.

TOURG THE SMHSONIAN AIR AND SPACE MM’S ENOLA GAY EXHIB

As a new and adly weapon, an atomic bomber, Enola Gay facilated a turng pot human history as hered the dawn of the Atomic Age and the threat of nuclear war. Upon visual lotn of Hiroshima, Tom Ferebee aimed for the cy center and Enola Gay dropped the “Ltle Boy” bomb om 31, 000 feet at 9:15 am.

After “Ltle Boy” left the forward bomb bay, Enola Gay lurched upward, and Tibbets iated a high angle evasive manver to get as far away om Hiroshima as possible. Enola Gay tail gunner Bob Caron took this picture of the cloud of smoke billowg 20, 000 feet above Hiroshima after the explosn of the Ltle Boy atomic bomb on Augt 6, 1945.

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

The history and memory of Enola Gay and s part the atomic attacks on Japan, and their effect on endg the war the Pacific and the nuclear tensns of the Cold War, reflects differg viewpots.

The Smhsonian has been at the center of bat over those differg perspectiv terms of the terpretatn and public display of Enola Gay. Enola Gay was to be the central artifact a planned exhibn at the Mm examg the atomic bombgs durg the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In a revised exhibn, Enola Gay’s forward felage and bomb bay, two eng, a propeller, and other ponents, cludg a activated Ltle Boy bomb, went on display the Natnal Mall Buildg om June 1995 to May 1998.

ENOLA GAY

Udvar-Hazy Center opened December 2003, the fully-assembled Enola Gay went on permanent display the World War II Aviatn display area the Boeg Aviatn Hangar. The display of the Enola Gay has generated a variety of rpons rangg om public protts  1995 and 2003 to opposg pots of view exprsed  alternative exhibns, petns, and reports, and ntu to serve as a se study  prentg history the public sphere that is vigoroly discsed and bated to this day. The flight of the Enola Gay on Augt 6, 1945, signifi an end and a begng terms of our evolvg unrstandg of technology and warfare the twentieth century.

Many veterans had advoted for the display of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortrs ed to drop the bombs, as a celebratn of Amerin triumph over Japan, but there were already ncerns that the Smhsonian was creatg a polilly rrect, revisnist terpretatn of the events. Harw rigned on May 2, 1995, jt days before he was schled to ttify Senate June 28, 1995, an exhibn, simply tled "Enola Gay, " opened at the Natnal Air and Space Mm. Only the felage was on display, acpanied by basic facts and rmatn about the plane's entire Enola Gay bomber is currently on display the "World War II Aviatn" exhibn at the Natnal Air and Space Mm's Steven F.

Related RourcCollectns related to the Enola Gay, Smhsonian Instutn ArchivThe Enola Gay: A Natn's, and a Mm's, Dilemma, Edorial by Mart Harw, The Washgton Post, Augt 7, 1994Special Report: The Smhsonian and the Enola Gay, Air Force Associatn, March 15, 1994Smhsonian Cancels Exhib on Atomic Bomb, The Baltimore Sun, January 31, 1995Recent Acquisn - Rerds om Mart Harw, Director, NASM, 1986-1995, The Bigger Picture, Smhsonian Instutn Archiv. Enola Gay: Today, Enola Gay -- the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima -- is parked at the Smhsonian Air and Space Mm Chantilly, Virgia.

THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’

Terntental bomber: Enola Gay was signed to be an terntental bomber, one that uld fly om the ntental US to Europe se Bra fell to Nazi Germany.

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.

WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

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. 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. 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.

” 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.

THE INLIBLE ENOLA GAY

Japan officially surrenred on September 2, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949. Rtoratn work on the Enola Gay began 1984 and volved a total of some 300, 000 staff airplane's forward and aft felage sectns, wgs, landg gear, eng, propellers and vertil stabilizer were brought together for the first time sce 1960 an arduo operatn this sprg and summer the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center's aviatn hangar. The airplane's ponents had been transported to the center earlier this year over a perd of weeks 12 tckloads om the mm's storage and prervatn facily Suland, a wgspan of 141 feet and a gross weight of 137, 500 pounds, the Enola Gay is too large and too heavy to be hoed tact the mm's flagship buildg on the Natnal Mall Washgton.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

Even Boeg logo ps om the perd were tracked down for the center of the pilot and -pilot's ntrol wheels for a plete rtoratn of the Enola Gay was built at the Glen L. B-29s also reprented the first succsful large-sle e of prsurized crew June 1945, the Enola Gay participated several flight trag and live bombg practice missns the Marianas. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay was ed to drop, om an altu of 31, 600 feet, the "Ltle Boy" atomic weapon, stroyg Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:16 a.

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

The war, the Enola Gay unrwent some modifitn for tts the Pacific to terme the effects of atomic weapons on naval ships but never took part the program. In Augt 1960, the airplane was disassembled and s var ponents were taken to the Smhsonian's nearby storage facily June 1995, after much public bate over a proposed large, terpretive exhibn focg on the Enola Gay and the atomic bomb, the Smhsonian's Natnal Air and Space Mm opened a smaller exhib that clud display of the airplane's forward felage and landg gear, vertil stabilizer, two eng and an aileron. The exhibn attracted nearly four ln visors before closg May the Udvar-Hazy Center, the Enola Gay will be displayed among a group of World War II aircraft that clu a Brish Hawker Hurrine, a German Focke-Wulf FW 190A-8 and a Japane Aichi Seiran as well as well-known Amerin warplan like the Lockheed P-38J Lightng and the Republic P-47D Thunrbolt.

When the Smhsonian cid to exhib the “Enola Gay, ” the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the director and curators of the Natnal Air & Space Mm (NASM) hardly anticipated the firtorm of ntroversy that would rult. While the “Enola Gay fias, ” as some at the mm me to ll , was not the first skirmish Ameri’s ongog culture wars, was an omo warng of the battl to e. As a NASM curator volved the early planng of the exhib, who was also prent at the bacle, the followg is a first-person acunt of the origs, evolutn, and fate of the “Enola Gay” exhib, tled “The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II.

GAY MUNICH

One project was to brg the “Enola Gay” out of the Garber llectns and rtoratn facily, and fish the plane’s rtoratn time for a major exhib on the Capol Mall to ci wh the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Sce I had wrten a doctoral dissertatn on the aftermath of the atomic bombg, later published as The Wng Weapon: The Atomic Bomb the Cold War, 1945-1950, Mart asked me to take the ial lead planng the “Enola Gay” exhib, until Tom arrived at NASM.

To my amazement, he was entirely supportive of our plans to tell the story of the atomic bombg, and even offered to loan any of the artifacts his mm had s llectn, for as long as the “Enola Gay” remaed on display at NASM.

Mart and Steve likewise cid that we should show a draft of the exhib’s planng document and label script to those we thought might be our most proment crics, wh the hope of rpondg to and fg their cricisms before the “Enola Gay” went on display. My memory is that the AFA required to say the followg three thgs the “Enola Gay” exhib, and we were given to unrstand that the assertns were unequivol and non-negotiable. The mimal exhib script and a short vio featured quotatns om the “Enola Gay” pilot, retired Air Force brigadier general Pl Tibbets, and the other crew members, scribg the missn.

In retrospect, none of at the mm had an appreciatn of how much the polil climate had changed Washgton sce planng for the “Enola Gay” exhib began. On December 16, 2003, the day after the “Enola Gay” was unveiled s new—and likely permanent—home, NASM’s new annex near Dull airport, a half-dozen atomic bomb survivors joed fifty self-intified “peace activists” to unfurl a banner readg: “Hiroshima—Never Aga” ont of the plane. For famo reasons, only is one of jt 26 Boeg B-29 bombers still existg, but is also the plane that dropped the nuclear bomb over Hiroshima to the effort of the Smhsonian staff members, Enola Gay is on public display today.