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MEDIA ADVISORY
Air Force Association Website Includes Enola Gay Controversy Archive
Arlington, VA, November 6, 2003— How should the Enola Gay , the B-29 that dropped
the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, be exhibited at the National Air and Space
Museum? The question is back in the news.
Nearly ten years ago, outrage from Congress and the public stopped a plan to use
the famous airplane as a prop in a political horror show that came close to depicting
Japan as a victim rather than as an aggressor in World War II. That scheme was
replaced by a straightforward exhibit that drew four million visitors—most of whom
gave it top marks—between June 1995 and May 1998.
The Enola Gay will be put on permanent display at the museum's new Udvar-Hazy
Center, scheduled to open to the public in December near Dulles Airport. The
announced plan is to exhibit it with a straightforward label, giving basic facts and
stating that the aircraft dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
This week, the national news media reported that a group of "scholars, writers,
activists, and others" are mounting a protest, demanding more political content in
the exhibit. Characterizations of the 1994-1995 controversy vary in accuracy. A full
record of what happened, including copies of revealing internal museum documents, is
available at the Air Force Association's Enola Gay Archive on the Web at
www.afa.org/media/enolagay/chrono.asp.
The Air Force Association (AFA) is an independent, nonprofit, civilian
organization promoting public understanding of aerospace power and the pivotal role
it plays in the security of the nation. AFA has more than 200 chapters nationwide
and overseas, and more than 136,000 members.
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Contact: Napoleon Byars, director of policy and communications, The Air Force
Association, 1501 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22209, 703.247.5850, e-mail:
nbyars@afa.org.
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