Enola Gay Archive

The Enola Gay and the Smithsonian

After "The Last Act" With Martin Harwit gone, the museum displayed the Enola Gay's forward fuselage, a propeller, and other components in a depoliticized exhibit. It drew four million visitors, the most ever for a special exhibit. (NASM photo by Carolyn Russo)

In 1994, the National Air and Space Museum and its parent organization, the Smithsonian Institution, planned to exhibit the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, as a prop in a political horror show. It would have depicted Japan more as the victim instead of the aggressor in World War II.

However, the museum's plans were revealed by Air Force Magazine, the journal of the Air Force Association. A raging controversy ensued, and in response to public and Congressional outrage, the political exhibition was canceled in 1995 and the museum director was fired.

The Smithsonian Institution replaced the original exhibition with a straightforward program that eventually became the most popular exhibition in the museum's history.

The controversy never died. Books and articles continue to appear, many of them written by people who have not bothered to check the facts.

Here are the contemporary articles, reports, and documents - drawn upon by all parties to the controversy - that were the raw materials for the argument in 1994 and 1995.

Here also is the complete report, "The Smithsonian and the Enola Gay," published by the Air Force Association in April 2004.

Chronology of the Controversy

Revisionism Gone Wrong

A collection of Air Force Association reports, analyses and articles, ranging from March 1994 to December 1996 --

Part 1 Special reports and analyses

Part 2 Articles and editorials

The Airplane

The Crew

The Atom Bomb

The Mission

Recommended Reading and Web Site Links

Frequently Asked Questions

Verbatim

Instill Value
“When you get down to our airmen, they are not looking for praise, glory, and accolades. But they are looking for value—value in them as human beings. And to do that, we have to put value in the mission. When the nation, at the leadership level and every American’s level, places value in the mission, they will put value in the people. And that is what I find important to the airmen inside of the world that I live in.”
—Gen. John Corley, commander of Air Combat Command, during a four-star forum at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2008.

Verbatim

What Does the Nation Expect?
"The question for us is, ‘Should a force that is extremely relevant and in very high demand in this very difficult environment of the global war on terrorism have airplanes that are 30 or 40 years old?'"
—Lt. Gen. Donald Wurster, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, commenting on the command’s aged fleet of gunships and special-mission airlifters and tankers, during a four-star panel discussion at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Sept. 17, 2008.