Exhibiting the Enola Gay
ReView of a National Controversy at
the Smithsonian
© by Mike Reinschmidt
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
CONTENTS
CREATING THE BOMB
DECISION TO USE IT
MISSION OF THE ENOLA GAY
GROUND-LEVEL EFFECTS
THE A-BOMB’S COLD-WAR ROLE
GLOBAL REACTIONS
I. CREATING THE BOMB
• Politicians
• Scientists
• Soldiers
Political Players & Antagonists
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Frank D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
James F. Byrnes
Henry L. Stimson
The Soviet Factor:
• Joseph V. Stalin
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Emperor Hiroitho
Kuniaki Koiso
Kantaro Suzuki
Marquis Kido
Shigenori Togo
Minister Shigemitsu
Scientific Competitors
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Albert Einstein
Robert Oppenheimer
Werner Heisenberg
Niels Bohr
Edward Teller
Ambitious Soldiers
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George C. Marshall
Leslie R. Groves
Carl Spaatz
Paul W. Tibbets
Charles Sweeney
Douglas McArthur
II. DECISION TO USE IT
• The Ultra-secret Manhattan
project
• Trigger rationale
• Selection of target cities
• Effect on the Soviets
The ultimate decision to use the atomic
bomb was made by President Truman in
Potsdam where in his diary Truman
characterized the Japanese as “savages,
ruthless, merciless, and fanatic” in the last
hours before the actual bombing. Two
days later he further justified his decisions
by stating, “when you have to deal with a
beast, you have to treat him as a beast.”
(L&E 1996:86)
III. MISSION OF THE ENOLA GAY
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Aviation inexperience with A-bombs
Building of the 509th Composite
Secrecy and training
Moving to Tinian and Execution
IV. GROUND-LEVEL EFFECTS
• Hiroshima
• Nagasaki
• Secrecy of the Japanese
government
• Medical (in)attendance
• Juxtapositions of Fate
• The long aftermath
Juxtapositions
of Fate
Juxtapositions cont’d
Juxtapositions
Juxtapositions …
Juxtapositions
21 Nobel Prize Laureates
from the Manhattan Project
& Victims of their Work
Juxtapositions
Juxtapo …
Protestant Victory Service, Tinian Island,
Aug. 7, 1945
Catholic Victory Service, Tinian Island,
Aug. 7, 1945
Worship of the Warship
p
Speaker Tibbets & Shadow Man
The Tibbets’!
(4 generations of Pauls)
Popular home front slogan (1940s):
“Remember Pearl Harbor: Keep “em Dying”
Official artist’s title of this painting: “The Enola Gay dropping its egg.”
Studs Terkel in an Interview with Gen. Paul W. Tibbets at age 87 in 2002
ST: One last thing, when you hear people say, "Let's nuke 'em, let's nuke
these people," what do you think? [referring to 9/11]
PT: Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna
kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war
anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the
newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many
civilians.” That's their tough luck for being there.
V. THE BOMB’S ROLE
• Forced end of the war?
• The new era and the
Cold War
• American power
• Was the bomb keeper of
the ice of the Cold War?
The Exhibition Plan
• A quiet and contemplative mood will be
established
• The morality of the bombing will be
addressed
• The exhibition will not attempt to impose
any particular point of view
• The aircraft will be surrounded by large
b/w photos of Hiroshima after the attack
(excerpts, L&E 1996:18)
Objects
Of The Game
Cancellation of the Exhibition
• Veterans insisted that any ambiguous feelings
about the mission of the EG were rooted in the
subversive cultural impulses located mainly in
academia and among museum curators
• They wanted to remove the aircraft lest it be
symbolically soiled
• They wished to punish those responsible for the
exhibit and for altering the celebratory nature of
the NASM
• They desired to expunge the exhibit script of
anything that might faintly offend American
commemorative sensibilities
(L&E 1996:21)
Conservative Victory
The fight over the EG exhibition was “over
the reassertion by most Americans that
they’re sick and tired of being told by some
cultural elite that they ought to be
ashamed of their country.”
Newt Gingrich
(in L&E 1996:187)
Sources
Linenthal, Edward & Tom Engelhard (eds.)
1996 History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles For the American
Past. NY: Holt
Harwit, Martin
1996 An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay. NY: Springer
Verlag
MacDonald, Sharon (ed.)
1998 The Politics of Display: Museums, Science, Culture. NY: Routledge
Karp, Ivan & Stephen Lavine (eds.)
1991 Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Displays.
Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press
Air Force Magazine and The American Legion Magazine (see pertinent issues,
1993-95)
Japanese Perceptions
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Immediate Japanese Reactions
Total Un-preparedness
Hibakusha
Chosonjin Hibakusha
Conception and Politicization of the Peace
Park in Hiroshima
• Victim Representation
• On-going Controversy
VI. GLOBAL REACTIONS
• How did Europeans (gradually) react to
the bombings?
• How did Asians (immediately) react to the
bombings
• How have Americans gradually reacted to
the bombings over time in the post-war
era?
 THANKS! 
I’d like to thank everyone for 4 very intense
and rewarding weeks of seminar.
Let’s stay in touch (seriously!) for more
discussion but also to make good mutual
use of our talents & resources.
I believe that the opportunity to build such a
network as ours does not come around
very often, so let’s keep it up! 