The Enola Gay Controversy - Round 4 - June 1995

Contents:

• ENOLA GAY
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB
• THE ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON
• THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’
• THE SMHSONIAN AND THE ENOLA GAY
• ENOLA GAY AND THE WCHY ORIG OF THE FIRST AIDS PROTT
• HIROSHIMA’S ENOLA GAY RRIED 12 MEN, HOPE AND THE WORLD’S ADLIT WEAPON
• ENOLA GAY: WE VISED WH THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE ATOMIC 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. ” 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.

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. 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.

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

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 ENOLA GAY'S HISTORY LIV ON

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.

THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB 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.

THE SMHSONIAN AND 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.

He handpicked the plane the night before the missn, to the surprise of s crew, and had his mother’s name -- Enola Gay -- pated on s si. It was a moment for which none of the Enola Gay’s crew -- away by then, but still rocked by the blast -- was que prepared.

Some fly ahead to check the weather to see what ’s like at the actual target, and Enola Gay was part of that for Nagasaki, " Kney said. 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. While no members of the crew that flew the Enola Gay rema to tell s story, the aircraft liv on for visors.

ENOLA GAY AND THE WCHY ORIG OF THE FIRST AIDS PROTT

"They want to see the spachip Disvery, they want to see the [SR-71] Blackbird, and they want to see the Enola Gay. The story of Colonel Pl Tibbets and the crew of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is reunted this three-hour movie adapted by Jam Poe and Millard Kfman om the bt-sellg book. 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.

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

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

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?

ENOLA GAY: WE VISED WH THE PLANE THAT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

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.

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. 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).

Not sce 1855 has the Smhsonian been riven by a ntroversy to equal that precipated by the proposed Enola Gay exhib. When the Enola Gay exhib was beg planned the 1990s, one observer was uncerta whether the staff of the Air and Space Mm uld "overe" the celebratory character of s tablishment "and make the exhib of the Enola Gay the tnal opportuny is planng... Wrg a statement drafted "well before my stallatn as Secretary" and published the October 1994 issue of the Smhsonian magaze, Heyman put the Enola Gay ntroversy terms of "prcipl of fundamental importance to the Smhsonian.

I will not attempt to al wh the evolutn of the Enola Gay script, as fascatg as such an exercise would be, except to say that var revisns of were sent out for ment to outsi anizatns, such as the Air Force Assotn and nasm's own Advisory Commtee on Rearch and Collectns Management (head by Richard Kohn of the Universy of North Carola). Young which proposed, the wake of the ntroversi over the Smhsonian's "The Wt as Ameri" exhib and the "year-long polil attack" on the script for the Enola Gay exhib, "that Amerin mms adopt a Bill of Rights to protect eedom of terpretatn.