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

Contents:

• ENOLA GAY
• ENOLA GAY: WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT AND WHO USED IT?
• THE ENOLA GAY
• EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY
• THE SMHSONIAN’S DECISN TO EXHIB THE ‘ENOLA GAY’

ENOLA GAY

On permanent display at the Natnal Air and Space Mm’s Udvar-Hazy Center Chantilly, Virgia, the Enola Gay was donated to the Smhsonian Instutn by the U. Although missg a few parts, the Enola Gay is now rtored so generatns of Amerins n see the plane that left an lible mark the annals of time. As the Enola Gay ma s fal approach to Hiroshima that day, Tibbets ascend to 31, 000 feet, then turned over ntrols to Ferebee.

The Enola Gay was then buffeted vlently when stck by two shock wav—one direct and the other reflected om the ground.

In 1995, a 50th anniversary exhibn of the end of World War II, anized by curators and the director at the Natnal Air and Space Mm and displayg the felage of the Enola Gay, met wh unprecented cricism after veterans groups cricized the exhibn’s script for beg overly sympathetic to the Japane and the mm’s historians for beg misleadg and unpatrtic. 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.

ENOLA GAY: WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT AND WHO USED IT?

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.

THE ENOLA GAY

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.

EXHIBG THE ENOLA GAY

"They want to see the spachip Disvery, they want to see the [SR-71] Blackbird, and they want to see the Enola Gay.". 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 nose.As 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 another.On Aug.

Would the crew have need for the cyani?Two other B-29s, the “Great Artiste” and “Necsary Evil,” were supposed to go along to take pictur and rerd data.But “Enola Gay” was the “strike ship.”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 history.It was an important enemy ary se wh a wartime populatn about 280,000, acrdg to the historians Gordon Thomas and Max Man-Wts.Almost half of them were about to be cerated, cshed, and irradiated by the c atomic weapon named “Ltle Boy” that the Enola Gay rried.Tens 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 bombs.It would be the start of a ightful era of weapons that uld fy ntrol and menace civilizatn.But 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. (The war Europe had end May.)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 onle.The 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.

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

If this ighteng new weapon worked, the thkg went, would shorten the war, albe at a dreadful st human life.But first the Enola Gay had to get off the ground.Runng out of groundThe lumberg alumum plane wh a 141-foot wgspan had been stripped of s armor and all fensive weaponry but s tail guns.

William Parsons, who flew on the missn as the bomb specialist.And bee of that risk, the 10-foot-long “Ltle Boy” had not yet been armed.It 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 Man-Wts.This created cril mass and the explosive nuclear cha reactn that would lay waste to Hiroshima.The four cloth bags of explosive and the tonator would not be serted until the plane was the air.The Enola Gay was now dog 180 mph but was nng out of ground.Stg bi Tibbets, the -pilot, Capt.