History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past by Engelhardt Tom & Linethal Edward T

Author:Engelhardt, Tom & Linethal, Edward T. [Engelhardt, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1996-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

“The B-29: A Three-Billion-Dollar Gamble”

“The B-29 and the Bombing of Japan”

“The World’s First Atomic Strike Force”

“The B-29 Superfortress ‘Enola Gay’”

“The Missions”

Sandwiched between the long second section, questioning the use of the bomb, and the fourth section, depicting what happened when the bombs killed tens of thousands of Japanese civilians, this careful, laudatory reconstruction of airplanes and fliers might have had very little emotional impact. And once visitors moved on to the next viewing area, they would have confronted scenes that made any impulse to memorialization utterly inappropriate.

Section four possessed no ambivalence whatsoever. “When visitors go from Unit 3 to Unit 4,” predicted the 1993 planning document, “they will be immediately hit by a 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.” “Ground Zero: Hiroshima, 8:15 A.M., August 6, 1945 [;] Nagasaki, 11:02 A.M., August 9, 1945” was designed to shock. “If Unit 2 [the decision to drop the bomb] 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 … . The emphasis will be on the personal tragedy of this experience.”16 The four parts—“Before the Bomb: Two Cities at War,” “The Incredible Avalanche of Light,” “Two Cities in Chaos,” and “A Deadly New Threat: Radioactivity”—were horrifying. Relentlessly, repetitively, redundantly, in excruciating detail, returning again and again to the death and mutilation of women and children, this section of the exhibit succeeded even in text form in eliciting shock and disgust. The many pictures of human pain and suffering, the heartrending quotations from observers and victims, all appealed to the emotions of viewers. Such scenes not only would have reinforced anxieties about whether the United States needed to use the bomb, but might well have provoked feelings of guilt and shame among American visitors, including veterans. In the ensuing controversy, no part of the exhibit angered veterans more.17

The final section, “The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” told two stories: “Japan Surrenders” and “The Cold War and the Nuclear Arms Race.”

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