DISCUSSION 4A:  ENOLA GAY EXHIBIT REVISITED

THE SCENARIO

The date is January 1, 2005.  You are a member of a public commission established by the Smithsonian Institution to offer recommendations for a planned exhibit of the restored "Enola Gay," the B-29 that dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  The museum hopes to avoid the controversy that marred the fifty-year anniversary commemorations by encouraging dialogue between a wide variety of stakeholders.  The deadline for your report is fast approaching.

THE PROCEDURE

We will spend two weeks in the Discussion Forum using the 1995 controversy over the Smithsonian's "Enola Gay" exhibit as a case study for analyzing collective memories of World War II and for exploring broader philosophical issues about the meaning of public history.

A role-playing exercise will provide the focus for the first week.  In the second week, you will move out of character to offer your own interpretations of both the 1995 display and the post-1995 history of the "Enola Gay," and to assess our classroom simulation.

Complete the following steps for Week 1:

1)  Decide upon a character that you will play on the public commission.  Choices include but are not limited to the following:

In your responses, sign your e-mails each time with your character's identity rather than your real name.  If you choose someone whose perspective might differ substantially from your own, try to still articulate thoughtful arguments rather than restricting yourself to mere caricature.

 

2)  As per the Smithsonian's instructions, answer the following questions:

a)  What are the most important lessons from the 1995 "Enola Gay" controversy?

b)  What should be the purpose of the 2005 sixty-year anniversary exhibit?

c)  What should be the nature and scope of the the 2005 exhibit?

d)  Suggest a title for the exhibit.

 

3)  Remain in character and engage in respectful exchanges with other panel members.

THE BACKGROUND

In 1993, officials at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, the nation's most visited, began planning a major display that would have as its centerpiece the fuselage of the "Enola Gay "  The fifty-year anniversary of the end of World War II, it was argued, provided an appropriate occasion for a public reassessment of the context in which the atomic age began and of the consequences of the bombs' use.  An advisory board of historians helped to put together a 500-page script for the anticipated 10,000-square-foot exhibit.

By mid-1994, however, the Smithsonian was embroiled in controversy, as various critics accused the organization of political correctness.  Veterans groups, including the American Legion and the Air Force Association, decried what they characterized as a consistent tendency in the original text to portray the Japanese as innocent victims and the attendant unwillingness to recognize that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, though momentous, did indeed save lives.  Soon, op-ed pieces at the Washington Post and elsewhere chimed in in support of the veterans.

Political pressure began to be applied.  Members of Congress sent a letter to the Smithsonian expressing "concern and dismay" at the tone of the exhibit.  The U.S. Senate passed a resolution that identified the working script as "revisionist and offensive to many World War II veterans."  Museum administrators met with different interested parties and agreed to substantial editorial changes.

Now, historians responded with fury.  The Organization of American Historians insisted upon the need to shield museums from political interference.  The newly-established Historians Committee for Open Debate on Hiroshima castigate the Smithsonian's text changes as "historical cleansing" and as representative of "patriotic correctness."

Ultimately, the original plans were scrapped and a much-scaled-down exhibit opened to the public in June 1995.  Between 1995 and its closing in 1998, some four million visitors would see a display which featured the plane fuselage, a plaque identifying the "Enola Gay," a cardboard cutout of the crew, and a sixteen-minute video in which crew members recounted their experiences.  Air and Space Director Martin Harwit was a casualty of the affair; he resigned under pressure in May 1995.  His supervisor, Smithsonian Secretary Michael Heyman, concluded that "we made a basic error in attempting to couple a historic treatment of the use of atomic weapons with the fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the end of the war."  A Senate subcommittee held hearings in Spring 1995 to review operating procedures at the Smithsonian, an organization that receives two-thirds of its funding from the federal government.

READING ASSIGNMENT

Spend at least an hour carefully browsing through several of the following web-sites:

NEWS STORIES AND OPINION PIECES:

ESSAYS:

OTHER SOURCE MATERIAL:

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