has yet to achieve a passing grade.Īs a result, we find ourselves - ironically it must be said - in the same remedial national history class as the Japanese. Our nation's uneasy relationship to the historical debate over the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is such a test and, despite history's patient annual re- administration of it, the U.S. Throughout Asia, the Japanese are reviled for their dishonest refusal to acknowledge their barbarous behavior during their occupations of China, Korea and the countries of Southeast Asia. How nations deal with their histories can be an exacting litmus test of national character. Byrnes, noted in his diary that Truman and his aides "agreed Japs looking for peace…. 3, 1945, Walter Brown, an aide to Secretary of State James F. I am sure they will when Manhattan appears over their homeland." And again, on Aug. Believe Japs will fold up before Russia comes in. The discovery of President Truman's handwritten private diary, for example, revealed that on July 18, 1945, he had read a "telegram from Jap Emperor asking for peace….
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This is a view that historical research has confirmed. News, who wrote in October 1945: "Competent testimony exists to prove that Japan was seeking to surrender many weeks before the atomic bomb came." Eisenhower, New York Times military correspondent Hanson Baldwin and David Lawrence, editor of U.S. It is an interesting and relevant fact that this controversy was initiated in 1945 by conservatives such as Time magazine publisher Henry Luce, Gen. But others have insisted that the atomic bombings were not necessary to end the war.
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dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki on Aug. After that, the consequences become contentious.Īccording to President Harry Truman, one direct consequence was the decision of the Japanese to surrender - after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on Aug. The first and most immediate of those consequences was the death of 140,000 people - 95% of whom were civilians. The exhibit of Germany's V-2 is accompanied with photographs of the slave workers who built the rockets and the bodies of civilians killed by them.ĭisplaying the Enola Gay as just another B-29 is a charade - undertaken because our national museum is afraid to deal honestly with the consequences of the plane's historic mission. The Smithsonian doesn't limit its observations to technological advances when it displays weapons invented and used by other nations. This is as ridiculous as it is disingenuous. In other words, the consequences of its historic mission are beside the point. Our primary focus is that it was the most advanced aircraft in the world at the time." John Dailey, the Air & Space Museum's director, insists that that aspect of their education is not the museum's responsibility: "We are displaying it in all its glory as a magnificent technological achievement…. The answers to these questions should be part of any American child's (and adult's) education, but retired Gen. What does an atomic bomb do when it is dropped? Why was one dropped on a city? What happened to the people in Hiroshima? Was it necessary to drop it? Some curious children might want to ask questions about that last sentence. Its final sentence notes, almost as an afterthought, that "On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan." Of course there is, and the museum's brief label provides a hint.
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Schoolchildren will learn that the plane's wingspan is 141 feet and 3 inches, and that it had a top speed of 339 mph.īut does such a history lesson justify a field trip to a museum? Isn't there something more important about the Enola Gay that our children should know?
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Visitors to the museum will read a brief label identifying the Enola Gay as "the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II, and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments." This week, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum unveiled a fully restored, finely polished artifact of World War II - a Boeing B-29 "Superfortress." This particular airplane - the Enola Gay - is the centerpiece of the museum's sleek new $311-million annex.