NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM, SMITHSONIAN
INSTITUTION
EXHIBITION PLANNING DOCUMENT
JULY 1993
TENTATIVE EXHIBIT TITLE:
THE CROSSROADS: THE END OF WORLD WAR II, THE ATOMIC
BOMB, AN THE ONSET OF THE COLD WAR
Projected Dates: May 1995 to January 1996
For the United States, the Second World War was not only fought on two
different fronts, it was, in many respects, two different wars. While Europe as
well as the Pacific were witness to battles of terrible ferocity, there is a
striking contrast between the conduct of the war and its ending in Germany and
in Japan. In Europe, American forces battled an enemy similar to the foe their
fathers had met, in a conventional war of slow attrition culminating in
Germany’s collapse. In the Pacific, opposing forces engaged an unfamiliar
enemy; racial and cultural differences fanned fears and inflamed hatreds.
Perhaps most strikingly, the war ended abruptly, without the conquest of the
enemy’s homeland.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three
days later, were the first—and thus far—the only use of nuclear weapons in
anger. Although mankind has lived with war and violence throughout its history,
the atomic bombings announced the arrival of a new and qualitatively different
peril, one that still threatens humanity: sudden, mass and indiscriminate
destruction from a single weapon. From the vantage point of fifty years after
these events, the atomic bombings and the end of World War II in the Pacific
thus mark a turning point, an historic crossroads.
Beginning in May 1995, the National Air and Space
Museum will mount an exhibit about the end of the Second World War, the
development of the atomic bomb, and the onset of the Cold War. Museum staff
members recognize that this subject is marked by strong feelings and a broad
range of opinion. The primary goal of this exhibition will be to encourage
visitors to undertake a thoughtful and balanced re-examination of these events
in the light of the political and military factors leading to the decision to
drop the bomb, the human suffering experienced by the people of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and the long-term implications of the events of August 6 and 9, 1945.
While there will undoubtedly be other commemorations in connection with the
fiftieth anniversary, this exhibit can provide a crucial public service by
reexamining these issues in the light of the most recent scholarship. The Museum
hopes that the proposed exhibition will contribute to a more profound discussion
of the atomic bombings among the general public of the United States, Japan and
elsewhere.
Entry to the Exhibition
The exhibition will be held on the first floor of the Museum, in Gallery
103, which is roughly square and encloses an area of 505 square meters (5436 sq.
ft.). The gallery’s entrance will be widened to create a distinct entrance and
exit for exhibit visitors, but this widening will also allow the movement into
the gallery of the forward fuselage of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that
dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Visitors entering the exhibition will walk past a series of images
relating to the end of the war in Europe. There are pictures of victorious
American soldiers, images of the liberation of the concentration camps, VE Day
celebrations, and newspaper headlines proclaiming Victory in Europe.
A label will call attention to the fact that Allied soldiers,
sailors and airmen had brought the war in Europe to a close by forcing the
complete and unconditional surrender of the enemy. They had won total victory in
a just cause. But war continued in the Pacific, where the fighting was
increasingly bitter and losses continued to mount. The possibility of an
invasion of Japan, and even higher casualties, loomed on the horizon.
The main label will prepare visitors for the exhibition by indicating
that it is about technology, war and decisions and consequences: the decision to
drop the bomb and the consequences of doing so, something that has remained
controversial for half a century. The exhibit will present as objective and
balanced a presentation of these issues as possible.
A notice at the entrance will also refer visitors interested in the
general history of World War II aviation, on land and at sea, to the Museum’s
galleries that cover those topics.
Unit 1: A Fight to the Finish
Upon turning the corner after the entrance, visitors will enter the first
of four major sections of the exhibit. This unit, “A Fight to the Finish,”
will set the stage and create the historical context for the other units,
particularly the second, “The Decision to Drop the Bomb.” Unit 1 will focus
on the last months of the war in the Pacific, but will also cover the end of the
war in Europe and the increasing escalation of the strategic bombing of cities,
which began in Europe.
The main theme of this unit will be the increasing bitterness and
brutality of a war that was also, for Americans, a war of vengeance for Pearl
Harbor. Visitors will encounter, soon after entering the unit, a film that will
put them back into the spring of 1945 and provide them with some basic
historical information. This video will be primarily made from American
newsreels, but may include Japanese footage or propaganda films, if these are
available and appropriate. This film will set the mood for the unit by giving
visitors images of the end of the war in Europe, the fighting in the islands,
firebombing, and exhortations to victory on the home front. Also striking, upon
entering “A Fight to the Finish,” will be a view of the Japanese Okha
suicide bomb hanging overhead and diving toward the visitor. The kamikaze
attacks expressed and symbolized the bitter resistance of the Japanese forces,
which contributed to American racial and cultural perceptions and the assumption
that war would end with a fight to the finish on the beaches and in the home
islands of Japan.
“A Fight to the Finish” will have three major subunits of text,
photos and artifacts: “Two Nations at War,” “Combat in the Pacific” and
“The Firebombing of Japan.” The first of the three sub-units, “Two Nations
at War,” will discuss the attitudes and atmosphere on the home front in the
United States and Japan, as well as the stereotypes through which each side saw
the other. On the American side, the subunit will discuss, on the one hand,
war-weariness at the end of the European war and the desire to get the Pacific
war over as quickly as possible, and on the other, the stereotypes and the
assumption of fanaticism that characterized American views of the Japanese.
These attitudes reinforced and were reinforced by the bitterness of fighting on
the islands, the kamikaze campaign and the firebombing campaign. On the Japanese
side, this unit will look at Japanese stereotypes of Americans and Westerners
and will discuss the atmosphere in the country and preparations for a last-ditch
defense of the home islands. Posters, magazine images and similar artifacts and
photos from both sides will make the atmosphere of the period more vivid.
The second sub-unit, “Combat in the Pacific,” will discuss the
fighting in the islands and the kamikaze campaign. (The Okha is actually an
artifact of this section.) The sub-unit’s purpose will be to show how
different the Pacific war was for Americans—no quarter was given and few
prisoners were taken—as well as the Japanese, who increasingly felt compelled
to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend the Emperor and the nation. “Combat
in the Pacific” will focus particularly on the Okinawa invasion, which began
on April 1, 1945, and which led to frightening casualties among the Japanese
defenders and civilians, as well as among American forces on the ground and at
sea, where kamikaze and other attacks made Okinawa the most costly battle for
the U.S. Navy in its entire history. This campaign reinforced the perception
among Americans that the invasion of the home islands was inevitable and would
be very bloody. Okinawa also played a significant role in the secret
deliberations over how to use the atomic bomb.
Finally, “The Firebombing of Japan” will begin by
looking at the escalation of strategic bombing in World War II from 1939/40,
when President Roosevelt was appealing to all sides to avoid all indiscriminate
bombing, to 1945, when wholesale destruction of cities became a matter of
course. Most of the sub-unit will then examine the origins and course of the
firebombing, especially the Tokyo raid of March 9/10, which about equaled the
casualties of Hiroshima in the short run. Artifacts in this section will include
leaflets dropped from B-29s and, if possible, bombs and incendiary canisters
such as those used in the raids. This section will point out that air raids
killed at least half a million Japanese civilians in the last six months of the
war—about as many as in five years of bombing Germany. These raids were an
important context for the decision to use the atomic bomb without warning on
Japanese cities.
Unit 2: The Decision to Drop the Bomb
Upon leaving Unit 1, visitors will enter a unit which will begin by
indicating that, unbeknownst to the people and fighting forces of both sides,
the United States almost had ready a new and revolutionary weapon that would
change the way the war would end: the atomic bomb. Visually, Unit 2 will be
dominated by the “Little Boy”-type uranium bomb casing, such as the one used
on Hiroshima, which symbolizes the availability of this new weapon to decision
makers in the United States.
This artifact will probably follow the first sub-unit, “Deciding to
Build the Bomb,” which will give a quick overview of the origins and history
of the Manhattan Project, from the discovery of fission in Germany in 1938/39,
through the beginnings of the project in this country, its acceleration in
1941/42 as a project directed against the Germans, and finally its scale-up to
be a huge engineering and industrial project for the production of fissionable
materials. The section will also discuss in very simple terms the physics of the
bomb and the different mechanisms of the uranium gun-type vs. the plutonium
implosion-type. It will note that, under President Roosevelt, the assumption was
always that it would be used, either on Germany or Japan.
The exact order of the second sub-unit, “Deciding
the Use the Bomb,” has not yet been determined, but it will include the
following topics: Truman’s sudden accession tot he Presidency and his first
encounter with the Manhattan Project; the Target Committee, the Interim
Committee, and the discussion of a demonstration; the “speed-up program” and
the compulsion to justify the expense of Manhattan; the Szilard/Frank/Chicago
petition; the Soviet factor in American government deliberations; the change in
the Japanese government and its ineffective peace initiative through Moscow;
American decryption of Japanese diplomatic traffic and knowledge of the
initiative’ plans for an invasion of Japan and likely casualties (which were
projected to be far fewer than the post-war figures of half-a-million or more
American lives); the question of the Emperor’s role in the post-war era and
the politics of unconditional surrender in the US; final target selection;
Stimson and Kyoto; the Potsdam conference and Declaration; the Trinity test of
July 16, and the order to drop the bomb.
This complicated material can be made comprehensible by adhering closely
to chronology and using a telegraphic style with lots of quotations from
participants and original documents. Important documents and artifacts will also
be used in this section to hold visitors’ interest, including the originals or
facsimiles of Einstein’s 1939 letter to Roosevelt, the July 25 Army Air Forces
order to drop the atomic bombs, personal effects of Harry Truman, a “Purple
Analog” decoding machine used to decipher Japanese diplomatic traffic, and
physicist Emilio Segre’s goggles and jumpsuit from the Trinity test.
The purpose of this section, which forms the
intellectual heart of the exhibit, if not its largest section by area, will be
to show that there may have been no “decision to drop the bomb: in the usual
sense, but rather there was a process of moving toward use that was difficult to
deflect. Neither the atomic bomb nor an invasion was probably needed to end the
Pacific war, but this is much more obvious in hindsight than it was at the time.
The exhibit will thus point out to visitors the difference between the knowledge
and understanding of actors in historical events and our ability to understand
them later through research and the advantage of perspective.
Unit 3: Delivering the Bomb
The second unit stops at the point where the dropping of the bomb is
inevitable; the exhibit now turns to how the weapon was to be delivered. When
visitors walk into this unit, they will immediately see the nose of the “Enola
Gay,” plus some view of the rest of the gigantic forward fuselage, which is
about 18 meters (56 ft) long and 3 meters (10 ft) in diameter. On the port side
is the evocative lettering of the name? Visitors will also be attracted to the
Plexiglas nose, with its view of the cockpit and the bombsight that was used on
the Hiroshima mission. It will also be possible to view the forward bomb-bay,
with NASM’s reconstruction of the atomic bomb sway-braces and latch, either
through one of the wing holes in the fuselage or via mirrors under the aircraft.
As space permits, we will also use an engine and a propeller from the “Enola
Gay,” which will give a further sense of the scale of the aircraft. As a
technological artifact, the engine was
particularly important because it had a troubled history, but it made the
B-29’s range and payload capacity possible.
The theme of Unit 3 is thus the creation of the instruments for delivering the
bomb—the B-29 aircraft and the special atomic weapons unit, the 509th
Composite Group—and the actual missions against Hiroshima and Nagasaki as
viewed by the crews. The first major sub-unit of “Delivering the Bomb” will
discuss the history of the B-29 Superfortress, which was not designed with the
atomic bomb in mind but rather as the next-generation conventional strategic
bomber. Among the aspects that will be covered are: the early troubled history
of the aircraft program, the huge industrial investment in its manufacture
(twice the $2 billion expenditure of the Manhattan Project), the difficulties of
deploying it against Japan from India, China and the Marianas, the construction
of the airfield on Tinian, and the final breakthrough to effectiveness with the
fire raids, although not without considerable cost to the many B-29 crews who
carried out these dangerous, long-range missions.
The second
sub-unit of “Delivering the Bomb” will cover the origins and history of Col.
Paul Tibbets’ 509th Composite Group which was formed in 1944 to
drop the atomic bomb, although only one other person in the unit besides Tibbets
was informed of the nature of the weapon. Through labels, photographs and
artifacts from members of the 509th, the sub-unit will then discuss
training in Utah and the Caribbean in 1944-45, then transfer to Tinian and
practice and combat missions in the Pacific during the summer of 1945. Personal
items and photos from the veterans themselves will convey a sense of the
personalities who made up the 509th and their life at various bases.
Finally, after passing the “Enola Gay’s” fuselage, the last
sub-unit will discuss the preparations for the atomic missions, the loading of
the bombs and the actual missions themselves, as experienced by the crew members
of the attacking and accompanying aircraft. After discussing the historic
Hiroshima mission, the exhibitry will go on to discuss the hurried preparations
for a second atomic mission before the weather turned cloudy over Japan. The
labels will make the point that there was an order to drop “bombs” on Japan
and no separate decision regarding what became the Nagasaki attack. This part of
the exhibit will be dominated visually by the “Fat Man” atomic bomb casing,
which is over 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter and 3 meters (10.5 ft) long. This section
of the exhibit will conclude with the trouble-plagued mission of “Bockscar,”
which attempted to drop the “Fat Man’ three times on Kokura before
unleashing it on the northern part of the secondary target, Nagasaki. This
sub-unit will also have a 5-6 minute video on the preparations for the missions,
the missions themselves and aerial views of the mushroom clouds.
Unit 4: Hiroshima, 8:15 AM, August 6, 1945/ Nagasaki, 11:02 AM, August 9, 1945
When visitor go from Unit 3 to Unit 4, they will be immediately hit by
drastic change of mood and perspective: from well-lit and airy to gloomy and
oppressive. The aim will be to put visitors on the ground during the atomic
bombings of the two cities. The opening of “Hiroshima…/Nagasaki…” must
convey that stunning, searing moment of the initial flash, heat and burns
through pictures, through the words of survivors themselves and through
bomb-damaged artifacts that will be lent by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, if their
city governments are agreeable. The opening to this unit could include burnt
watches and broken wall clocks, symbolizing moments frozen in time: the
cataclysmic explosions of the atomic bombs on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. Stark pictures
of burned-in shadows and possibly a wooden panel from Nagasaki of washing on a
line would also help to bring this moment home.
If Unit 2 is the intellectual heart of the exhibit, Unit 4 is its
emotional center. Photos of victims, enlarged to life-size, stare out at the
visitor. Photographs of dead bodies will, however, be presented in such a way
that parents can choose whether or not to allow their children to see them. The
emphasis will be on the personal tragedy of this experience. The people of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki will tell their own stories.
The first major subunit will cover the bombings in the two cities
chronologically, that is, since the experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from
the moment of the explosion are fundamentally the same, the two will be treated
in parallel. Through labels, pictures and artifacts, this sub-unit will cover
the initial flash, the blast wave, the ignition of fires, and in Hiroshima, the
creation of a firestorm. This approach can be made much more affecting and real
at each stage by using the words, the personal artifacts, and in some cases, the
drawings of the survivors to give individual stories of death, suffering and
survival. Among the artifacts that could be used, if permission were granted are
a schoolgirl’s lunchbox with completely burned contents, burned and shredded
clothing, and melted and broken religious objects. Where possible, photos of the
persons who owned or wore these artifacts would be used to show that real people
stood behind these artifacts. Photographs of the cities before and after would
also be used to make the extent of the destruction more comprehensible. Of
course, the sub-unit would also indicate the differences between Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, particularly how geography and weather led to a more powerful bomb in
Nagasaki only producing about half the victims.
The second sub-unit of “Hiroshima…/Nagasaki…”
would then look at the two cities and their people in the days, weeks, months
and years after the bombings. Among the most important subjects to be covered in
this sections are the overwhelming medical crises in the two cities and the lack
of hospital facilities, the search for relatives and loved ones, the
confrontation with a mysterious and, for a few weeks, steadily worsening
epidemic of radiation sickness, and the long-term radiation effects of the
bombs. The story of the later wave of cancer, particularly the leukemia wave of
the 1950s, can be told through the story of particular victims, such as that of
Sadako and the paper cranes. For the period immediately after the bombings,
there are also many powerful visual images from both cities, but particularly
from Nagasaki. Hibakusha (bomb survivors) would also give their stories
in a video or on a videodisk system that would allow visitors to select
particular ones to watch.
Finally, the last, brief sub-unit of Unit 4 would
look at the surrender of Japan and the role of the atomic bombs (and the Soviet
declaration of war on Japan) in producing that sudden event. It would look at
the intervention of the Emperor in breaking the deadlock of the Japanese
government and at the thinking of President Truman and Secretary of State Byrnes
in formulating their replies. If possible, this section will include a recording
of Emperor Hirohito’s historic radio address of August 15, alongside a
Japanese radio of the period. This section of the exhibit because it provides
viewers with information about the controversial question as to whether atomic
bombs were needed to shock the Japanese government into ending the war and
whether the human suffering they produced was outweighed by the lives saved by
an early surrender. These are, of course, difficult moral and political
questions and the Smithsonian Institution can take no position in that regard.
All the exhibit can do is provide visitors with the information needed to think
more deeply about these questions.
Conclusion: The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Upon leaving Unit 4, those visiting the exhibit will emerge into a solemn
and contemplative space near the exit, where they will be invited to think about
and respond to the exhibit. The brief labels in this section will note that the
bombings are not only a subject which will forever remain debatable, they also
heralded a new age of nuclear weapons. If Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not trigger
the Cold War and the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet
Union, they certainly symbolized the new age and gave a glimpse of the reality
of nuclear war.
The Conclusion will include a video giving a range of perspectives on the
bombing—from 509th or other veterans (or Paul Fussell) talking
about how they believe the bombings saved lives and giving their views and peace
messages, if they accept our invitation to do so. This video will encapsulate
the many perspectives of the bombings, but it (and the exhibit) will embody one
common wish: that nuclear weapons never be used in anger again.
We will end by recapitulating the legacy of the
atomic bomb after World War II—fusion bombs a hundred times more powerful than
the fission bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima; warheads numbering in the
tens of thousands making up the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the
former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War; war heads which may have
become lost as the Soviet Union has unraveled; and smaller countries like South
Africa or North Korea producing or trying to produce atomic bombs of a caliber
comparable to those of World War II—all of which suggests an uncertain,
potentially dangerous future for all of civilization.
At the exit, visitors will be able to share their own feelings and
thoughts by writing on prepared cards, in comment books or with a light pen on a
computer screen. Interesting comments written by previous visitors can be made
visible in some way, increasing the feeling of participation. Those who have
toured “The Crossroads” will thus leave, we hope, thinking and debating
these most crucial historical events of the twentieth century.