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Sawicky Essay #1 Case Study The Enola Gay Exhibit World War II is one of the most romanticized wars in History. Countless

movies, books, and even video games have been devoted to the world struggle. There are many reasons for this particular wars popularity, including the perception of it being a clear battle of good verses evil. What gets mixed up in the battle between the Allied and Axis powers are the citizens who had no control over their governments actions and were left at the mercy of their countrys enemies. This can be seen with the fire bombing of Dresden and mainland Japan. Unfortunately those bombings are small in comparison to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, where over 100,000 Japanese lost their lives. This begs the question, was killing so many innocent civilians the right move? This question was going to be explored at a special exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in 1995, but was instead canceled. This censorship caused a ripple effect among the historical world that can still be seen today. To best understand everything that surrounded the Enola Gay exhibit

controversy, it is best to first get some background on the National Air and Space Museum. Since opening its doors in 1976, the NASM has been the laughing stock of the scholarly world. Unlike other Smithsonian museums that spend a lot of time on scholarly research, the NASM drew big crowds with good old fashioned celebration of American achievement (1038). The museum continued to be criticized for it

plain look at the history of technology and one observer even criticized the museum as a giant advertisement for air and space technology (1038). This lack of scholarship began to change when Martin Harwit, a scholar himself, took over control of the museum. He led the museum towards a goal of scholarly understanding of the great technologies that the United States has produced. Pushing the boundaries of this new agenda of scholarship and education at

the National Air and Space Museum, the plan to bring the Enola Gay to the museum was put together. The initial desire to bring the Enola Gay to NASM was relayed by many, most notable veterans of World War II (1040). One of the few proponents of bringing the plane to the museum was the retired commander of United States armed forces in the Pacific, Noel Gayler. He argued forcefully against an act that could be interpreted to celebrate such destruction or to memorialize the killing of so many innocent civilians. (1040). The plan had a primary goal of encouraging visitors to make a thoughtful and balanced re-examination of the atomic bombings in the light of the political and military factors leading up to the decisions to use the bomb, the human suffering, and the long-term implications (1041). This main goal was meant to delicately walk the line of both making the veterans feel good, while also leading visitors to think about the consequences of dropping the Atomic bomb on Japan. Following a 303-page script that was produced as a detailed look into what

the exhibit would entail, museum workers were excited to cover such an extraordinary topic. The script was broken into 5 sections; the war in the pacific, the

decision to drop the bomb, the history of the B-52, the effects of the bombing on Japan, and Japans decision to surrender along with the beginning of the Cold War (1042). With all these sections combined, visitors would have been guaranteed an unbiased view into everything surrounding the dropping of the Atomic bomb. The script even accounted for how visitors would feel. The planned for things like starch contrast between the might of the B-52 to being on the ground in Hiroshima. Each section was had purpose; section 2 was the intellectual heart of the exhibit while section 4 was focused on emotion. It was section 4, the portion that focused on the suffering by the Japanese

after the bomb was dropped, that sent the Air Force Association in an uproar. The association always had suspicions about the museum being antimilitary. The proposed exhibit was just proof that the National Air and Space Museum did not care about honoring the brave men that served. Although you can understand that these veterans do not want to hear anything bad said about what their brothers in arms did, they fail to view the Japanese as part of the exhibit. The reason for this giant push to honor the men of the Air Force comes out of a completely different problem that does not have to do with the NASM. The Air Force has a lack of monuments in Washington D.C. and because of that the NASM has become a de facto Air Force monument in many ways. The other problem is that it is harder to memorialize the Air Force the same way to do with the Army, Navy, and Marines. Its hard to commemorate air battles on land and the only real way to

commemorate something great is with the actual plane, which requires an indoor museum (1052). After the Air Force Association posted an article about the proposed exhibit in Air Force Magazine, the story could not be stopped. The controversy was now out there for the public to see. Other veteran groups picked up the cause, as did politicians (1053). After pressure from Capitol Hill, The NASM decided to revise the script, in hopes that they would appease the veteran groups. As in with any compromise, no one gets what he or she wants. After the revision, uproar erupted among the historians. They were enraged that the museum caved into censorship and went as far as to call the draft mere propaganda, the result of historical cleansing (1055). Although very harsh in their criticism, the historians were right. Purposely leaving out certain aspects of history is something the Nazis or Soviets would do, not the freedom loving United States of America. With both parties angry, the pressure was put on Harwit to cancel the exhibit all together. With members in congress against the exhibit, including the speaker of the house Newt Gingrich, who said; The Enola Gay fight was a fight, in effect, over the reassertion by most Americans that theyre sick and tired of being told by some cultural elite that they ought to be ashamed of their country (1056). It was clear that the Enola Gay exhibit was no longer the only thing at stake for lawmakers; they saw the exhibit as their chance to prove to their constituents that they were patriotic.

The final nail in the coffin for the exhibit was due to the thing that makes the world go around, money. With all the national attention about the exhibit, the Smithsonian saw some backlash. Some twenty thousand subscribers to the Smithsonian magazine complained about the exhibit. (1056). If that wasnt enough, the federal government, who provided 72 percent of the Smithsonians operating budget, was calling for the firing of Harwit. The exhibit was canceled against the wishes of Harwit and historians across the nation lost. Unfortunately the nation of freedom was not ready for a truly unbiased exhibit that both showed Americas greatness and its faults. There is always going to be opponents of almost anything. In todays world, there are still people that either do not believe in or are proponents of the Holocaust. Educated people like students at RIT, have no problem with looking at situations with some objectivity, but when you spend a large portion of your life fighting for your country, it makes it hard to see both sides of the story. In the end, it is plain to see how something as innocent as an exhibit on the Enola Gay could turn into a national controversy. The media and Politians who are quick to appease their voters are the real bad guys in this story. If they took some time to think about letting Americans learn about its successes and failures, we would be a better nation.

History and the Culture Wars: The Case of the Smithsonian Institution's Enola Gay Exhibition Richard H. Kohn The Journal of American History Vol. 82, No. 3 (Dec., 1995), pp. 1036-1063 Published by: Organization of American Historians Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2945111