Fifty Years On
World War II ended in 1945. In Europe the
war came to an end on May 8; in the Pacific on August
15. But in these two theaters the Allies had fought two
very different conflicts. The men inducted in Europe in
1939 battled an enemy remarkably similar to the foe
their fathers had met, with weaponry initially quite
similar. As in World War I, battles might end with whole
armies surrendering, and troops passing the remainder of
the war in prisoner of war camps. And though wonder
weapons, like long-range rockets and jet aircraft, were
brought on line, none except radar had a major impact on
the outcome of the war.
The war in the Pacific was different.
Opposing forces battled an unfamiliar enemy. Racial and
cultural differences fanned fears, and inflamed hatreds.
Savage battles ended with horrible losses on both sides,
as men fought to their deaths, taking no prisoners and
afraid to surrender for fear of consequences worse than
death. And in the war against Japan there was indeed a
vastly superior new weapon.
While all the major participants in World
War II had conducted rudimentary experiments on nuclear
fission, only the United States had completed
construction of an atomic bomb. Its employment against
Hiroshima and Nagasaki may not have influenced the
ultimate outcome of the war, but it set in motion events
that have had consequences of unparalleled proportions
for our times.
In the first section of the exhibit, the
necessary historical context will be given: the last
phase of World War II in Europe and the Pacific and the
increasingly brutal character of that conflict. This
section will touch upon a variety of topics, including
strategic bombing in Europe, the firebombing of Japan,
and contrasting racist perceptions about the different
enemies. (For a more complete discussion of the war in
Europe, and battles at sea, visitors will, at this
point, be directed respectively to the Museum’s existing
World War II and Naval Aviation galleries, while the new
exhibition will continue with a focus directed at the
war against Japan, inadequately discussed elsewhere in
the Museum.)
A video of selected newsreel footage from
the period will give a sense of the atmosphere in the
last months of the war in the United States and Japan,
as well as posters, cartoons and other visual images of
this period. The fighting on Okinawa and other islands
and the kamikaze campaign will highlight the desperate
character of the Pacific conflict. Among the artifacts
that may be included are a Japanese “Okha” suicide bomb
and leaflets and bomb canisters dropped by American
B-29s.
This introductory section will prepare
the ground for the next major unit: After a quick
overview of the decision to build the atomic bomb and
the history of the Manhattan Project, this unit will
offer the visitor a nuanced picture of the way decisions
were made in the American and Japanese governments in
1945, to provide visitors a deeper understanding of this
complex topic: Quotations from major participants and
key documents, such as the 1939 Einstein letter to
President Roosevelt and the July 1945 Air Force order to
drop the atomic bombs, will be used in this context. A
“Little Boy” atomic bomb casing will be used here to
indicate the reality of the bomb that was becoming
available to American decision-makers. A fuller
discussion of the topic, however, will be left to
outside reading suggested in a brochure that will be
available to visitors.
A key component of the next part of the
exhibition will be the forward fuselage of the B-29
Enola Gay. The entire aircraft has been in the
Museum’s possession for many decades and will be fully
restored by 1995, but it is too large to fit in any of
the Museum’s galleries. Therefore, the exhibit will be
using only the portion comprising the aircraft’s cockpit
and the bombsight, the evocative name painted on the
port side of the aircraft, and the bomb-bay with a
reconstruction of the special sway braces and latch. In
the vicinity of this massive artifact we will treat the
development of the bases in the Marianas, the 509th
Composite Group (Col. Tibbets’ special atomic weapons
unit) and the final preparations for the missions.
Beyond the fuselage itself, artifacts that can be used
in this section will include an engine, propeller or
other pieces of the Enola Gay (to further convey
its massive scale), plus documents, pictures and
memorabilia of the crews.
The next major section of the exhibit
will treat the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
themselves and the ensuing surrender of Japan. The
dimensions of the destruction and suffering in the two
cities will be shown here through pictures and film of
the victims, however upsetting that may be to some
visitors. We will include, as far as possible,
bomb-damaged artifacts from the two cities and other
documents and artifacts from the missions. A “Fat
Man”-type plutonium bomb-casing will also be shown here.
A video or movie in this section would include footage
of the missions and their aftermath, plus interviews
with survivors on the ground and crew members of the
attacking and accompanying aircraft.
The exhibition would conclude by noting
the debatable character of the atomic bombings, as well
as their important role as one of the starting points of
the nuclear age and Cold War. The closing video will
include the perspectives of a whole range of
people—historical actors, survivors, scholars and
ordinary people, both Japanese and American. At the very
end, visitors will be able to ponder what they have seen
and record their own reactions and thoughts in comment
books. They will leave the exhibition, it is hoped, with
a deeper appreciation for the importance and complexity
of these watershed events in modern history.
In setting this exhibition in motion, we
have had the cooperation of a large number of
organizations, both in the United States and in Japan. A
consensus appears to have emerged that events,
discussions of which were so often shunned in the past,
should now, fifty years after their occurrence, be
aired—perhaps as much as anything for the healing effect
that such a debate might finally have. Discussions with
the mayors of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have taken
place for the loan of items from these two cities’
museums, whose directors have been most helpful.
Japanese historians, humanists and artists have promised
their cooperation in a search for accuracy 9of fact and
balance to the presentation. The Radiation Effects
Research Foundation, jointly administered by the United
States and Japan, has volunteered to provide clarifying
data on long-term health issues. Similar support has
been obtained from U.S. veterans’ organizations which
aided the Museum in its restoration of the Enola Gay;
from the Executive Director and staff of the
Congressionally mandated 50th Anniversary of
World War II Commemorative Committee; from the staff of
the American Embassy in Japan working for Ambassador
Michael Armacost, and from a variety of other interested
organizations.
Fifty years after the atomic bombing of
Japan, the National Air and Space Museum, with its
unique collections of historic artifacts relevant to the
events—most of them kept in storage and inaccessible to
the general public for half a century—has an opportunity
and, many would maintain, an obligation to mount an
exhibition that will help visitors understand this
pivotal moment in the history of World War II and the
twentieth century.
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