Who Owns America's Past? by Robert C. Post

Author:Robert C. Post
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2013-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

FOR MOST OF 1994 THERE WERE FRENZIED EFFORTS to appease the Air Force Association and the American Legion, which proved to be a more formidable antagonist, although Harwit inexplicably believed it might be sympathetic. The American Legion spoke not for a military-industrial complex that regarded NASM as a key element of its publicity apparatus, as the AFA did, but rather for hundreds of thousands of fighting men who had risked death and believed they were saved from further risk—an invasion of the Japanese mainland—by what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; nearly seven thousand of their comrades had died in the battle for Iwo Jima, an eight-square-mile island only 750 miles from Tokyo.14

In April, Harwit named an independent “Tiger Team” to “review the script for signs of imbalance,” and it found plenty. In May, Harwit and Adams agreed on a new name: “The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II.” As “a line-by-line-review” of the script began along with representatives of the American Legion, the AFA compiled a “summary of changes” with a list of “what they’ve deleted.” The deletions included all suggestions “that the $2 billion spent on the bomb was a factor in using it,” “all quotes by officials or military leaders who opposed or criticized the decision to use the bombs,” and “all references to Japan being close to collapse when bomb used.” Every mention of Japanese internment camps was gone. So were “all photos of dead Japanese victims of bomb (except one),” “most photos of injured survivors (leaving six),” and “numerous artifacts related to children who died in the bombings.” Finally, the new script repeatedly referred to Truman authorizing use of the bomb “ONLY to save lives, not partly for other reasons,” and to an invasion, had it occurred, leading to “one million casualties (not tens of thousands)” and the war lasting until 1946 “or later.”15

On Sunday, August 7, 1994, a day after the forty-ninth anniversary of Hiroshima, the Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Harwit titled “The Enola Gay: A Nation’s, and a Museum’s Dilemma.” The dilemma had nothing to do with any “display of undue compassion for those on the ground.” That was no longer an issue, for everything intended to evoke such compassion had been purged (or nearly everything; there were still those six photos). The dilemma had to do with the museum seeking to honor veterans of the Pacific theater at the same time it told “the full story surrounding the atomic bomb and the end of World War II.” Harwit ended with what sounded like a plea for patience and understanding: “We have found no way to exhibit the Enola Gay and satisfy everyone. But a comprehensive and thoughtful discussion can help us learn from history. And that is what we aim to offer our visitors.” By then, however, “the full story” sounded like nothing but wicked political correctness to the punditry, and to many of the nation’s lawmakers as well, and Harwit got no patience or understanding.

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