Criticism Meets New Exhibit of Plane That Carried A-Bomb

[Otis Willie]

Criticism Meets New Exhibit of Plane That Carried A-Bomb

(EXCERPT) By ELIZABETH OLSON

ASHINGTON, Oct. 31 — When officials at the Smithsonian Institution
unveiled a new home for the World War II bomber the Enola Gay in
August, they had hoped to avoid the kind of controversy that had
previously plagued efforts to exhibit the airplane that carried the
first atomic bomb.

Not likely. Now a group of scholars, writers, activists and others
have signed a petition criticizing the exhibit for labeling the Enola
Gay as "the largest and most technologically advanced airplane for its
time" without mentioning that the Boeing B-29 dropped the bomb on
Hiroshima.

"You wouldn't display a slave ship solely as a model of technological
advancement," said David Nasaw, a cultural historian at CUNY Graduate
Center, and one of more than 100 signers of the petition. "It would be
offensive not to put it in context."

Peter J. Kuznick, the director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at
American University, who initiated the petition along with members of
the antiwar group Peace Action, emphasized that they were not opposed
to the display. "It is essential that the plane be displayed," Mr.
Kuznick said, "but it must include discussions about the decision to
drop the bomb."

He said he and other signers hoped "to sit down with Smithsonian
officials to see the seriousness of this...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com

[David Bromage]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They were hauled over the coals
in 1995 for mentioning that Enola Gay DID drop the bomb.

Cheers
David

[Matthew G. Saroff]

David Bromage > wrote:

>Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They were hauled over the coals
>in 1995 for mentioning that Enola Gay DID drop the bomb.

Nope, they were raked over the coals for doing the PC bit
about dropping the bomb, which cast the US in the as simply
being bloodthirsty.
--
--Matthew Saroff
_____ * For a succesful technology, *
/ o o \ * reality must take precedence over *
______|_____|_____ * public relations, for Nature *
uuu U uuu * cannot be fooled." *
* - Richard P. Feynman *

[Kevin Brooks]

David Bromage > wrote in message >...
> Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They were hauled over the coals
> in 1995 for mentioning that Enola Gay DID drop the bomb.

No, they were hauled over the coals in 95 because they went well
beyond mentioning that it "did" drop the bomb, and instead turned it
into a pseudo-revisionist statement about the decision to drop the
bomb. Veterans were not amused.

Brooks

>
> Cheers
> David

[Cub Driver]

>Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They were hauled over the coals
>in 1995 for mentioning that Enola Gay DID drop the bomb.

I don't know which is the nuttiest!

* The critics for likening Enola Gay to a slave ship

* NASM for neglecting to mention that it carried Little Boy

* Me for getting upset about these clowns.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put CUB in subject line)

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

[Jason Strong]

Cub Driver > wrote in message >...
> >Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They were hauled over the coals
> >in 1995 for mentioning that Enola Gay DID drop the bomb.
>
> I don't know which is the nuttiest!
>
> * The critics for likening Enola Gay to a slave ship
>
> * NASM for neglecting to mention that it carried Little Boy
>
> * Me for getting upset about these clowns.
>
> all the best -- Dan Ford
> email: (put CUB in subject line)
>
> see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
> and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

on the trips to Japan I once visited Hiroshima and was really amazed
by the people there.

a really polite Japanese family hosted me for three days and i was
utterly surprised when they asked me one night "why" we bombed their
city. I tried to be as diplomatic as possible and answered "to save
lives- both American and Japanese".

you should have seen the look on their faces. what i said was
practically incomprehensible to them.

in Hiroshima there are many shrines dedicated to the victims of the
Enola Gay and a strong sense of a Japanese version of "never again".

i am not into rewriting history for the sake of making someone or a
culture more comfotable, but experiencing Hiroshima did remind me of
the humanity involved and how war is not glorious at all, no matter
what the justification.

the B-29 controversy is a sensitive issue and should be treated as
such. The exhibit should mention the role the Enola Gay had in
dropping the bomb because that is what the plane is known for, not
some technological marvel.

NASM should know better

Jason