The New Enola Gay Controversy: Historians Protest the Latest Smithsonian Exhibit
A committee of scholars, veterans, clergy, activists, students, and other interested individuals is now forming to challenge the Smithsonian's plans to exhibit the Enola Gay solely as a "magnificent technological achievement." The planned exhibit is devoid not only of historical context and discussion of the ongoing controversy surrounding the bombings, but even of basic information regarding the number of casualties. We have formulated the following statement of principles, which we plan to circulate widely. The statement makes clear that we are not opposed to exhibiting the plane in a fair and responsible manner, but that we fear that such a celebratory exhibit both legitimizes what happened in 1945 and helps build support for the Bush administration's dangerous new nuclear policies. We, in fact, welcome and intend to initiate a national discussion of both the 1945 bombings and of current nuclear issues. But before we launch a public campaign and officially contact the Smithsonian, we seek endorsements of the statement from a small number of prominent individuals who can help the effort gain credibility and attract media attention. More active participation is, of course, welcome and desirable. Most immediately, though, please let us know if we can add your name to our list and how you would like to be identified.
Peter Kuznick
Professor of History and Director Nuclear Studies Institute, American University
Kevin Martin
Executive Director, Peace ActionDaniel Ellsberg
Author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy
Statement of Principles
Gen. John "Jack" Dailey, director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the most widely visited museum in the world, has announced plans to display the Enola Gay--the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima--as the centerpiece of the museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport. That August 6, 1945 attack, according to recent estimates, resulted in over 140,000 deaths. A second atomic bomb dropped three days later on the city of Nagasaki caused an estimated 70,000 deaths. And as many scientists warned in advance would happen, and as President Truman clearly understood, the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki initiated a nuclear arms race that threatened to bring about the annihilation of the human species, a danger that persists today.
Recognizing the momentous implications of the onset of the nuclear age, in 1999 a national panel of distinguished journalists and scholars voted the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the most significant news event of the 20th century. Yet, in a statement reflecting extraordinary callousness toward the victims, indifference to the deep divisions among American citizens about the propriety of these actions, and disregard for the feelings of most of the world's peoples, museum director Dailey declared, "We are displaying it [the Enola Gay] in all of its glory as a magnificent technological achievement." The plane, in fact, differs little from other B-29s and gains its notoriety only from the deadly and history-altering nature of its mission.
Dailey's remarks are particularly shocking in light of the criticism of the bombing by General Dwight Eisenhower and the questions raised by so many other WWII military leaders, sentiments best reflected in the haunting comments of Admiral William Leahy, Truman's wartime chief of staff who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who poignantly observed, "the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender….in being the first to use it, we adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages."
People throughout the world have already raised powerful objections to the exhibit. Hidankyo, the main survivors' organization in Japan, and Gensuikyo, the Japan Council Against A and H Bombs, have written to Dailey, insisting, "The display rationalizes the bombing and as such it is absolutely unforgiveable….Atomic bombs massacre civilians indiscriminately and are weapons that cannot be justified in humanitarian terms. Even now, many victims continue to suffer the after-effects." Nor can Americans acquiesce to an exhibit that implicitly celebrates the atomic bombings while avoiding all of the crucial questions. By its mishandling of these issues in 1995, the Smithsonian cast international doubt upon the integrity, decency, and fairmindedness of American institutions. We hope to avert a similar outcome this time. We have therefore formed an ad-hoc coalition of religious leaders, veterans, scientists, historians and other scholars, citizen activists, and students united by our conviction that such an exhibit must not go forward as planned.
We are not, however, opposed to exhibiting the Enola Gay. Much to the contrary, we welcome any exhibition that will spur an honest and balanced discussion of the atomic bombings of 1945 and of current U.S. nuclear policy. Our greatest concern is that the disturbing issues raised by the atomic bombings in 1945 will not be addressed in the planned exhibit and that President Truman's use of atomic weapons will legitimize the Bush administration's current effort to lower the threshold for future use of nuclear weapons. Whatever the National Air and Space Museum's conscious intention, any effort to treat the atomic bombings of 1945 in a celebratory fashion or to display the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb solely as a "magnificent technological achievement" can only dishonor the museum and the nation and serve the purposes of those who seek to normalize nuclear weapons and facilitate their future use.
We intend to use this exhibit, the presidential elections, and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings to stimulate a national discussion of U.S. nuclear history and current policy and to work with like-minded groups in other nations. Most Americans remain unaware of the policy changes adopted in the 2001 U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, which prompted the New York Times to editorially condemn the U.S. as a "nuclear rogue" nation, and of the measures taken by the Bush administration to produce a new generation of "more usable" nuclear weapons. The significance has not been lost on international leaders. In his stirring Peace Declaration on August 6 of this year, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba warned, "The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse. The chief cause is U.S. nuclear policy that, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear first strike and calling for resumed research into mini-nukes and other so-called 'useable nuclear weapons,' appears to worship nuclear weapons…." Or as Joseph Cirincione, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's nuclear expert, noted, the Bush administration is now "saying that nuclear weapons are no longer the weapon of last resort…"
To initiate this desperately needed national conversation on nuclear arms policy, past and present, the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy calls upon Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small, John Dailey, and other leaders of the Smithsonian to sit down with our representatives and those of other interested organizations and to jointly plan a balanced exhibit that places the bombings in their historical context, educates viewers about the consequences of past nuclear weapons use, and explains the controversy surrounding the use of the atomic bombs that antedates the deployment of the Enola Gay itself.
We also call on the Smithsonian to co-sponsor a joint conference or a series of conferences that explore the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the place of nuclear weapons in the modern world. Given the seriousness of the current nuclear crisis, should the Smithsonian not accede to this request for a fair and balanced presentation and a reasoned discussion of the many profound issues involved, we will join with others in this country and around the world to protest the exhibit in its present form and to catalyze a national discussion of critical nuclear issues.
Early Signers Include:
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University
Gar Alperovitz, Author, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb & Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam; Bauman Professor of Political Economy, University of Maryland
Joyce Appleby, Professor Emerita of History, University of California, Los Angeles
Thomas Bender, Professor of History, New York University
Susan Porter Benson, Professor of History, University of Connecticut
Kai Bird, coeditor, Hiroshima's Shadow and Author, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms
Casey Nelson Blake, Professor of History and American Studies, Columbia University
William Blum, Former State Dept. official, freelance journalist, author of Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
Julian Bond, Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Department of History, The University of Virginia
Paul S. Boyer, Merle Curti Professor of History Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Barbara Brooks, Professor of History, City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Rogers Brubaker, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
Una Chaudhuri, Professor of English and Drama, New York University
Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University
Steven Cohen, Professor of Education, Tufts University
Barry Commoner, Director Emeritus, Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Queens College, CUNY
E.L. Doctorow, Author
John W. Dower, Professor of History, MIT; Author, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
Daniel Ellsberg, Author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Sara M. Evans, Professor of History, University of Minnesota
Lane Fenrich, Professor of History, Northwestern University
Michael Frisch, Professor of History/ Senior Research Scholar, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Joseph Gerson, Director of Programs, American Friends Service Committee, New England Regional Office
John Gillis, Professor of History, Rutgers University
Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia University
David Glassberg, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Linda Gordon, Professor of History, New York University
Laura Hein, Professor of History, Northwestern University
Margot A. Henriksen, Professor of History, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Author, Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age
Hosea Hirata, Professor, Director of the Japanese Program, Tufts University
Stanley Hoffmann, Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University
Gerald Horne, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of African-American History, University of Houston
Matthew Frye Jacobson, Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University
Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University
Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University
Ron Kovic, Author, Born on the Fourth of July
Wendy Kozol, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, Oberlin College
David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Peter J. Kuznick, Professor of History, Director, Nuclear Studies Institute, American University
Walter LaFeber, Professor of History, Cornell University
Norman Lear
Richard Ned Lebow, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government, Dartmouth College
Susan E. Lederer, Professor of History of Medicine, History, Yale University
Steve Leeper, US representative, World Conference of Mayors for Peace
Mark H. Leff, Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Norman Levitt, Professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University
Susan Lindee, Professor of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania; Author, Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima
Robert Jay Lifton, Visiting Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Co-author, Hiroshima in America
Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy & Environmental Research
Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action
Paul H. Mattingly, Professor of History; Director, Program in Public History, New York University
Elaine Tyler May, Professor of American Studies and History, University of Minnesota; Author, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era
Robert W. McChesney, Research Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Brent Meeker, Science and Engineering Fellow of the Naval Air System Command
Everett Mendelsohn, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University
Zia Mian, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University
Richard H. Minear, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Translator of Hiroshima literature
David Montgomery, Farnam Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University
Bradford Morrow, Author, Trinity Fields and Ariel's Crossing; Professor of Literature, Bard College
Robert K. Musil, Executive Director and CEO, Physicians for Social Responsibility
David Nasaw, Distinguished Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center
Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
John Polanyi, Nobel Laureate, Chemistry, 1986
Leo P. Ribuffo, Society of the Cincinnati George Washington Distinguished Professor, Department of History, George Washington University
Robert J. Richards, Professor of History, Philosophy, and Psychology and Director, Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine, University of Chicago
Daniel T. Rodgers, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Princeton University
Roy Rosenzweig, Professor of History and Director Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
Andrew Ross, Professor of American Studies, New York University
Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1995
Eric Schneider, Associate Director for Academic Affairs, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Mark Selden, Professor of Sociology and History, Binghamton University; Author, The Atomic Bomb. Voices From Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Charles Sheehan-Miles, Veterans for Common Sense; Executive Director, Nuclear
Policy Research Institute
Ann Sherif, Professor of East Asian Studies, Oberlin College
Michael Sherry, Richard W. Leopold Professor of History, Northwestern University; Author, The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon
Martin J. Sherwin, Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History, Tufts University; Author, A World Destroyed
Rev. William Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Association
Damu Smith, founder, Black Voices for Peace
Alan Sokal, Professor of Physics, New York University
Paul Spickard, Professor of History and Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Jessica Wang, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles
Robert Westbrook, Professor of History, University of Rochester
John Whittier Treat, Professor of Japanese, Yale University; Author, Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb
Frank von Hippel, Professor of Public & International Affairs of the Woodrow
Wilson School, Princeton University
Daniel J. Walkowitz, Director, Metropolitan Studies, Professor of History, New York University
Charles Weiner, Professor Emeritus, History of Science and Technology, MIT.
Richard Weiss, Professor of History, UCLA
Geoffrey White. Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawaii
Jon Wiener, Professor of History, UC Irvine
Garry Wills, Author, Lincoln at Gettysburg
Lawrence S. Wittner, Professor of History, State University of New York, Albany
Lisa Yoneyama, Professor of Cultural Studies and U.S.-Japan Studies, Department of Literature, University of California, San Diego
Marilyn B. Young, Professor of History, New York University
Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus, History, Boston University; Author, A People's History of the United States
(Institutional affiliations added for purposes of identification only.)