Enola Gay display at Smithsonian museum draws criticism from U.S. public figures

The U.S. Smithsonian Institution plans to exhibit at its museum the fully restored Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, without description of the damage and after-effects of the A-bombing, including the number of people killed.

The Enola Gay was completely restored for the first time in 43 years and will be displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's new annex scheduled to open in December near Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

Fearing the celebratory exhibit will symbolize a major U.S. technological improvement, a committee of scholars, writers, and other public figures on November 5 sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting that historical context after the bombings and the crucial fact such as the number of casualties be mentioned as well.

Peter Kuznick, a professor at American University in Washington D.C., initiated this action by forming the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy.

Along with Prof. Kuznick, writer Daniel Ellsberg, historian Howard Zinn, scholar of Japanese modern history John Dower, linguist Noam Chomsky, film director Oliver Stone, Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi, and more than 100 other people signed the petition.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington in 1995 staged an exhibition of the forward fuselage of the Enola Gay. At that time, the museum was planning to add information on the damage caused by the A-bomb, but canceled the plan due to pressure from some parliamentarians and war veterans. (end)