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

Contents:

• ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• MEMORI OF THE UN THAT HID THE ENOLA GAY, WHICH DROPPED THE A-BOMB ON HIROSHIMA 75 YEARS AGO TODAY
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY
• THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?
• FOR TWO SMHSONIAN CURATORS, THE ENOLA GAY’S MISSN LNCHED THE NIGHTMARE OF THE NUCLEAR AGE. TO WWII VETERANS, DROPPG THE BOMB SAVED U.S. LIV. THEIR NFLICT OVER A MEMORATIVE EXHIB SPARKED THE MM’S RETREAT AND A BTER... : WAR OF WORDS
• HERE'S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB SIGNED BY OPPENHEIMER
• CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN
• HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB

ENOLA GAY

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.

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

Japan officially surrenred on September 2, Enola Gay remaed service for several years before beg given to the Smhsonian Instutn on July 3, 1949.

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. 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. 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. 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.

THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

After the bombgs and the war’s quick end, the Enola Gay remaed wh the Army Air Forc, takg part the Biki Atoll atomic tts before beg shipped to the Smhsonian 1960.

And the air and ground crews flyg off that hard-won soil to fally reach the heart of the enemy that dared attack the Uned Stat at Pearl plane that dropped the big there was another piece of ary technologil history that some argue had a larger hand endg the war than gets cred for — the B29 Tian was where the famed “Enola Gay” lnched s fateful missn to liver the first A-bomb, was also home to the 6th Bomb Group, which served as ver for the super-secret un also hid the “Enola Gay” for a time, before load s famo payload “Ltle Boy” the first Atomic Bomb dropped war — on Hiroshima, Japan on Augt 6, 6th Bomb Group, part of the Army Air Corps’ 313th Bomb Wg, 20th Air Force, ma to Tian, one of the last Pacific islands a cha leadg to maland Japan, months after Allied forc took the island a battle that lasted jt a few days but claimed more than 5, 000 Japane forc and more than 300 U. 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.

MEMORI OF THE UN THAT HID THE ENOLA GAY, WHICH DROPPED THE A-BOMB ON HIROSHIMA 75 YEARS AGO TODAY

While Ltle Boy, a simple “gun-type” uranium bomb, would not have explod had the Enola Gay crashed, Fat Man, a more plited plutonium bomb that had to be fully armed before takeoff, uld have.

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.

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.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

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.

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

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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

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. 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.

Tibbets, Jr., mand of the Superfortrs Enola Gay, dropped a highly enriched uranium, explosn-type, "gun-fired, " atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Tibbets Jr., 30, had handpicked the airplane on the assembly le Nebraska three months before and had jt had his mother’s name, “Enola Gay, ” pated black letters on the the plane mbled down the airstrip at over 100 mph, he had his lucky cigarette se wh him one pocket, and a box ntag 12 cyani psul Aug. ”Fifteen hundred to the north-northwt, unr a wang crcent moon, lay a 400-year-old Japane cy most Amerins probably had never heard of but whose name was about to be etched to the pag of was an important enemy ary se wh a wartime populatn about 280, 000, acrdg to the historians Gordon Thomas and Max half of them were about to be cerated, cshed, and irradiated by the c atomic weapon named “Ltle Boy” that the Enola Gay of thoands more would die the same way at Nagasaki a few days later, and the world would subsequently be hearg about megatons, mutual assured stctn, proliferatn, nuclear wter, meltdowns and dirty would be the start of a ightful era of weapons that uld fy ntrol and menace as “Dimpl Eight Two” picked up speed that morng, s missn was born of s time: liver a blow that the Uned Stat hoped might fally end the global butchery of World War II.

WHERE IS THE ENOLA GAY TODAY?

)This week, memoratns are schled across the untry, wh socially distanced ndlelight vigils and the tollg of bells, and bee of the vid-19, ceremoni and remembranc have moved Enola Gay, the Boeg B-29 Superfortrs that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is seen on display July 29, 2020, at the Steven F. If this ighteng new weapon worked, the thkg went, would shorten the war, albe at a dreadful st human first the Enola Gay had to get off the ground.

William Parsons, who flew on the missn as the bomb bee of that risk, the 10-foot-long “Ltle Boy” had not yet been was a “gun-type” bomb, one which an explosive charge would fire a “subcril” piece of uranium 235 down a six-foot-long “gun” barrel to a send subcril piece of uranium, acrdg to Thomas and created cril mass and the explosive nuclear cha reactn that would lay waste to four cloth bags of explosive and the tonator would not be serted until the plane was the Enola Gay was now dog 180 mph but was nng out of ground. So had an ternal radar system that tected the ground, tripped the tonator at that altu, and iated the tonatn bomb traveled for six and explod jt short of the Enola Gay, meanwhile, lurched upward on sheddg the weight of the bomb and executed a hairp turn to pe the expected shock wave of the first, the crew saw and felt nothg.

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. It stood for s abandoned, left outsi to the elements, souvenir hunters, and the Enola GayEnola Gay is a Boeg B-29 Superfortrs bomber aircraft manufactured B-29 Superfortrs was a 4-enge, propeller-driven bomber aircraft and was one of the most advanced aircraft World War II. When the B-29 entered service 1944, was one of the largt aircraft all of World War Gay left the assembly le on 18 May 1945 Bellevue, Nebraska, and stayed service until s retirement on 24 July 1946.

FOR TWO SMHSONIAN CURATORS, THE ENOLA GAY’S MISSN LNCHED THE NIGHTMARE OF THE NUCLEAR AGE. TO WWII VETERANS, DROPPG THE BOMB SAVED U.S. LIV. THEIR NFLICT OVER A MEMORATIVE EXHIB SPARKED THE MM’S RETREAT AND A BTER... : WAR OF WORDS

It is one of only 65 B-29s built unr the "Silverplate" specifitns, makg them pable of rryg nuclear Enola Gay on Tian the Marianas Islands where took off before bombg Hiroshima Gay beme the first aircraft to drop a nuclear bomb warfare spe s short service life.

Wh the nuclear bomb over Nagasaki three days later, the attacks ultimately end World War Bombg of HiroshimaWhile still on the assembly le, Enola Gay, pilot Pl W. When livered to the USAF on 18 May 1945, they assigned to 393d Bombardment July 1945, Enola Gay flew eight trag flights and two missns to drop nventnal bombs over Kobe and 5 Augt, Tibett assumed mand of the B-29 and named after his mother. Enola Gay took off om the Northern Mariana Islands on 6 Augt, piloted by Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay wav om the ckp before takg off to Hiroshima on 6 Augt other B-29s rted Enola Gay on the missn and provid measurg and photography equipment.

000 people, 30% of the cy's populatn, were Gay returned safely to the Northern Mariana Islands to great applse 12 hours after the war, Enola Gay was a ndidate for the nuclear tt program at the Biki Atolls but was ultimately not selected.

HERE'S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB SIGNED BY OPPENHEIMER

Enola Gay did not serve aga and retired 2003, the Enola Gay has been on public display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm Washgton, 1946 the Air Force cid to prerve Enola Gay. The Air Force gave the aircraft to the Smhsonian Instutn, but they lacked Gay was left outdoors durg s storage as the Air Force had no hangar space available. The plane's rtoratn beme a prry 1983 when the mm got a new director, a former Air Force Enola Gay at the Natnal Air and Space Mm Washgton, DC.

CONTROVERSY OVER THE ENOLA GAY EXHIBN

The bomber airplane beme the first to drop a nuclear weapon warfare when the Uned Stat bombed Hiroshima on 6 Augt World War 2, Enola Gay was left outsi for s, exposed to weather, souvenir hunters, and animals.

WASHINGTON — Shrk-wrapped, wgls and wh s tail sectn missg, the Enola Gay li silently amid the bris of mm nstctn, like a beached whale awag s fully assembled, the most famo bomber aircraft of World War II is 99 feet long and has a 144-foot wgspan. Even one as verno as the Smhsonian Instutn’s Air and Space Mm on the Mall only the ont felage of the Enola Gay ss behd locked and guard doors a closed-off mm gallery, while curators slowly--and now utly--build an exhib around the B-29 to tell s story.

HERE’S WHY THE PILOT OF ENOLA GAY HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT DROPPG THE FIRST ATOM BOMB

“We uld have cleared an entire area of the ma hall and jt had room enough to display the Enola Gay wh s wgs on, but ’s so heavy still would have gone right through the floor to the parkg garage below, ” says mm spokman Mike ’s a nice b of symbolism for the implosn that’s h the Enola Gay’s exhib as months before the schled May, 1995, openg of the most ntroversial exhib ever staged at Ameri’s most popular mm, the emotn-soaked bate over the plane and s display has already bee so polilly charged and so weighted down by personal recrimatns that the Smhsonian has been forced to unprecented public prsure, the mm has drastilly altered s origal plans for s exhib markg the 50th anniversary of the Enola Gay’s only missn: the droppg of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug.

No matter your pot of view, one thg is clear: The Smhsonian has all but surrenred to the veterans groups and other crics who loudly opposed the mm’s ial exhib plans on the grounds that they were wildly anti-Amerin and lan wh the scent of polil, after five revisns and a seri of arduo, le-by-le edg ssns between the mm staff and reprentativ of leadg veterans groups, the mm has produced a fal script for the proposed Enola Gay exhib, “The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, ” that has been cleansed of most of s ntroversy. Sensg victory, meanwhile, veterans groups ntue to prs for even further chang to the anizatn of the exhib, argug that the curators still hope to play “emotnal tricks” on mm visors by lkg the display of the Enola Gay to pictns of Hiroshima bomb victims and survivors. Happy isn’t the word I would e, ” acknowledg Fetters, the mm, perhaps is ftg that this new nservative era, the backlash agast PC--real or imaged--would achieve s greatt triumph here Washgton, wh sight of the Capol buildg and a Congrs now firmly unr Republin many ways, fact, the story behd the Smhsonian’s stggle over the Enola Gay has much more to do wh 1990s cultural polics than do wh the history of World War Amerin cisn to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug.

Print Harry Tman had moved cisively to e the bomb to end the war quickly and to save thoands of Amerin liv by avertg a planned vasn of a relcrant the procs the Uned Stat had also hered the nuclear age, and wh gradually me a new sense of ambivalence about the of Amerin the start of their planng for the 50th anniversary of the Enola Gay’s missn to Hiroshima, Nfeld and Crouch were nvced that they had to explore that larger history of the nuclear age, and what Hiroshima meant for the morn world. Louis, the Wright Brothers’ Flyer or Chuck Yeager’s X-1, the Enola Gay would not be displayed on s own, but would rather serve as the centerpiece for a polil history of the dawn of the nuclear threat and the onset of the Cold Washgton Post lumnist Jonathan Yardley argu, the cisn not to simply display the bomber on s own, but to place a historil ntext of the curators’ choosg, was at heart a polil act.

Nfeld and Crouch wanted to e the Enola Gay to “addrs the signifince, necsy and moraly of the atomic bombgs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bee the qutn of whether was necsary and right to drop the bombs ntu to perplex . ”Yet almost by fn, that meant they would be lookg at the history of the Enola Gay through a 1990s lens--and given Crouch and Nfeld’s own views, a cril one at that--and fail to grasp s 1945 quickly beme clear that this approach was meant to nvey an anti-nuclear perspective for the exhib, one that seemed to suggt that the Uned Stat had mted an immoral and racist act by droppg the bomb on a mm staff that regniz that many of s visors are young children or teen-agers who are almost wholly ignorant of the history of World War II, that was a valier step to take. Its anti-nuclear msage was overlaid on a script that took astonishg liberti wh the history of World War II leadg up to the Enola Gay’s example, the first versn of the script, wrten last January by Crouch and Nfeld, they scribed the War the Pacific as an Amerin “war of vengeance, ” while sistg that for “most Japane, was a war to fend their unique culture agast Wtern imperialism.

“Consequently, history has been nigrated, the Enola Gay has been misst, and a group of valiant Amerins have had their role history treated shamefully. Recent historil rearch had unvered many of the nuanc and subtleti behd Tman’s cisn to drop the bomb, and yet now the mm was abandong s efforts to addrs that issue, the group Thursday, a group of relig lears and peace activists met wh Harw to prent siar ncerns, argug that the exhib now fails to expla the long-term nsequenc of the Enola Gay’s missn. 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.