The Smhsonian’s Decisn to Exhib the 'Enola Gay' - Public History Weekly - The Open Peer Review Journal

Contents:

• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY
• THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• TOURG THE SMHSONIAN AIR AND SPACE MM’S ENOLA GAY EXHIB
• ENOLA GAY
• HISTORIANS PROTT NEW ENOLA GAY EXHIB
• THE SMHSONIAN AND THE ENOLA GAY
• ENOLA GAY EXHIBIT: PLANE AND SIMPLE
• THE EXHIB THAT BOMBED: THE ENOLA GAY CONTROVERSY AND CONTTED MEMORY
• THE ENOLA GAY
• SMHSONIAN SUBSTANTIALLY ALTERS ENOLA GAY EXHIB AFTER CRICISM
• HISTORY AND THE CULTURE WARS: THE CASE OF THE SMHSONIAN INSTUTN'S ENOLA GAY EXHIBN
• FIRST SCRIPT OF THE ENOLA GAY EXHIB COMPLETED
• THE NEW ENOLA GAY CONTROVERSY: PRO AND CON

EXHIBG 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.

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

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. It ntaed several major ponents of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber ed the atomic missn that stroyed Hiroshima, Japan.

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

A vio prentatn about the Enola Gay's missn clud terviews wh the crew before and after the missn cludg missn pilot Col. 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. 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.

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 veterans formed “the Commtee for the Rtoratn and Proud Display of the Enola Gay” to raise funds.

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

At first, the Enola Gay was planned to be displayed at an annex NASM facily near Washgton Dull Internatnal Airport. 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. They cid to exhib the Enola Gay at the annex, wh an acpanyg msage about the dangers of strategic bombg and latn.

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.” Heedg this warng, the mtee tabled the discsn and cid to first tt the waters wh a sixteen-month seri of talks, panels, and exhibs on “Strategic Bombgs World War II.” Meanwhile the proposed annex did not receive necsary fundg until 1999, om a private donatn. Correll, edor of the Air Force Magaze, llg the exhib a “strint attack on airpower World War I” by characterizg the ary aircraft as “stment of ath.” Still, Harw phed for a follow-up wh an exhibn on World War II that would clu the Enola Gay. 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.

ENOLA GAY

The planned exhibn was replaced by a simple display of the felage of Enola Gay wh ltle historil ntext. Officials om the Universy stated was not tend as a replacement for the Enola Gay exhibn at the Smhsonian. The 2003 exhibn of Enola Gay, followg s trend of ntroversy, also raised a new round of protts, om Japane survivors and others.

HISTORIANS PROTT NEW ENOLA GAY EXHIB

The Smhsonian’s Decisn to Exhib the 'Enola Gay' - Public History Weekly - The Open Peer Review Journal. What harbgers of the future of public history the US rid the mid-1990s fight over the meang of the Enola Gay?

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.

THE SMHSONIAN AND THE ENOLA GAY

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.

ENOLA GAY EXHIBIT: PLANE AND SIMPLE

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 exhib that opened at the Mall mm on June 28, 1995, was a pale shadow of the “Enola Gay” exhib as origally nceived. 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.

THE EXHIB THAT BOMBED: THE ENOLA GAY CONTROVERSY AND CONTTED MEMORY

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. “The Enola Gay and the Smhsonian Chronology of the Controversy 1993-1995, ” Air & Space Forc Magaze. [2] My troductn to the Enola Gay me shortly after I arrived NASM, when I vised the Garber rtoratn facily.

[3] Mart Harw, An Exhib Denied: Lobbyg the History of Enola Gay (New York: Sprger-Verlag, 1996), 247. [10] “Enola Gay Display Angers Victims, ” BBC News, December 16, 2003, accsed Augt 4, 2022, (last accsed 3 October 2022). 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.

THE ENOLA GAY

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.

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.

SMHSONIAN SUBSTANTIALLY ALTERS ENOLA GAY EXHIB AFTER CRICISM

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: 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.

A somber artifact: Jeremy Kney, curator at the Smhsonian Air and Space Mm, stands ont of Enola Gay. The ckp: Visors to the Smhsonian Air and Space Mm Chantilly, Virgia, n look down to the ckp of Enola Gay.

HISTORY AND THE CULTURE WARS: THE CASE OF THE SMHSONIAN INSTUTN'S ENOLA GAY EXHIBN

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. 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.

FIRST SCRIPT OF THE ENOLA GAY EXHIB COMPLETED

Three days later the Enola Gay nducted weather rennaissance the lead-up to the bombg of Nagasaki, Japan. Japan officially surrenred on September 2, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949. A group of historians and activists has livered a petn challengg the Natnal Air and Space Mm's proposed exhib of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortrs ed the atomic bombg of Hiroshima on Augt 6, 1945.

THE NEW ENOLA GAY CONTROVERSY: PRO AND CON

The new exhib, schled to open December 2003, will, as a NASM prs release (available at) not, intify the Enola Gay as the aircraft that "dropped the first atomic weapon ed bat" and scribe the B-29 as "the most sophistited propeller-driven bomber of World War II, " but will not otherwise explore the historil ntext of Hiroshima or nuclear weapons.