The committee would like the Smithsonian to follow the example the U.S. The group claims to have gathered 9,000 signatures calling for the Smithsonian to display the plane "proudly and patriotically." He's leading the Committee for the Restoration and Display of the Enola Gay, a group of veterans who served on B-29s that has been circulating protest petitions across the country.
of Northbrook, Ill., one of the most prolific letter-writers. "It is an insult to every soldier, sailor, marine and airman who fought in the war against Japan, or who were on their way to the invasion to defame this famous plane by using it as a centerpiece of a negative exhibit," wrote W. This sort of reassurance, written in response to angry letters, has done little to mollify some veterans who suspect the Smithsonian plans to engage in retrospective moralizing. Harwit, "We have no thought of apologizing for Hiroshima and Nagasaki." It is not a celebration, museum officials say. naval losses in the Pacific in 1945, the factors that were weighed in the decision to build and use the atom bomb, casualties in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the postwar proliferation of nuclear weapons. Many writers responded to what they've heard about the show, which includes sections on the enormous U.S.
Almost all are from veterans, many clearly the result of letter writing campaigns. The Air and Space Museum has a file more than an inch thick of letters received about the Enola Gay since August 1991. Crouch recalls, the man wrote that the Enola Gay "doesn't belong in the Air and Space Museum. However, consider the letter written by the Japanese citizen living in Washington to the mayor of Hiroshima. Some veterans are concerned that the exhibit will show the plane and its crew in an unfavorable light, or in some way express remorse for the atomic bombings. Their children may recall Cold War anxiety - learning about hydrogen bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles and seeing their terrifying destructive power expressed multiples of the first atomic bomb.Įmotions of a different sort run strong among World War II veterans, many of whom have no doubt that the atomic bomb saved their lives by shortening the war. "The Enola Gay is definitely the most popular," he says.įor older Americans, the plane may conjure memories of World War II, of joy at hearing the war had ended without an invasion of Japan's home islands.
"Most of the people who come here say, 'Are we going to see the Enola Gay?' " says Garber tour guide Al Hopkins, adding that in five years he has never heard a negative reaction to the plane from visitors, including many Japanese tourists. I remember the news reports when the bomb was dropped." Because I lived through that part of history. "Awe" was the word Garber visitor Bob Brooks of Olympia, Wash., Seeing the fuselage the first time is eerie, like confronting something pulled from the attic of the unconscious, a ghost risen from a grainy black-and-white newsreel. He became co-manager of Eastern’s Airbus A-300 training program.The lack of exposure seems to have magnified the Enola Gay's power.
They trained at Wendover Air Field in Utah, not knowing the scope of what they were training to do.Īfter the war, he settled in Coral Gables, Fla., with his wife, Roberta, and flew planes for Eastern Airlines. Albury joined Colonel Tibbets’s unit, the elite 509th Composite Group. He enlisted in the Army before graduating from the University of Miami’s engineering school. He told The Miami Herald in 1982 that he deplored war but would do what he did again if someone attacked the United States. Albury said he felt no remorse, since the attacks prevented what was certain to be a devastating loss of life in an invasion of Japan. The 10,200-pound device instantly killed an estimated 40,000 people 35,000 died of injuries and radiation sickness. Albury co-piloted the mission over Nagasaki, cloud cover caused problems until the bombardier found a hole in the clouds.