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News :: Nukes |
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140,000 Reasons Not To Celebrate The Enola Gay Exhibit |
Current rating: 0 |
by Michael Jones
(No verified email address) |
11 Dec 2003
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General John "Jack" Dailey, director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, suggests that there is marvel in the technological accomplishment of the Enola Gay. "We are displaying it in all of its glory as a magnificent technological achievement," said Dailey.
But make no mistake, there is no "glory" in the Enola Gay. |
Among the numbers you won’t see listed on the description label of the Enola Gay inside the Smithsonian exhibit opening at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport on December 15 is 140,000. That’s how many people the Enola Gay helped kill, when it dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
Instead, the Enola Gay exhibit is being held up as an historical masterpiece of military weaponry, a chance to display “the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II,” according to its museum label, “an important artifact from a design and manufacturing point of view.”
But what of the point of view of those 140,000 killed in the world’s first atomic mission?
General John “Jack” Dailey, director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, suggests that there is marvel in the technological accomplishment of the Enola Gay. “We are displaying it in all of its glory as a magnificent technological achievement,” said Dailey.
But make no mistake, there is no “glory” in the Enola Gay. There can be no “glory” in something that helped kill 140,000 people, and injured tens of thousands of others. The development of this weapon was not a technological achievement; it was a humanitarian travesty. And there can be no “glory” in something that helped contribute to the start of a worldwide nuclear arms race – an arms race that has, in many countries, destroyed ecological systems, and taken billions of dollars away from social spending.
The National Air and Space Museum, in response to outcry that the exhibit was too celebratory, released a statement saying, “Over the 27 years of its existence, the museum has carefully followed an approach which offers accurate, descriptive data, allowing visitors to evaluate what they encounter in the context of their own points of view.” Their conclusion is that the exhibit neither glorified nor vilified the role the Enola Gay played in history, and that the public should be invited to make up their own minds.
But such an amoral stance is unfair to the numerous survivors of the bombing. One has to wonder, almost, if the Enola Gay exhibit is serving the purpose of normalizing the use of nuclear weapons, by failing to provide a thorough account of the destruction it assisted in causing.
To echo the statements of the Hidankyo, a survivor’s organization in Japan, and Gensuikyo, the Japanese Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, this exhibit rationalizes the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when even now many victims continue to suffer from after-effects of the attack. For victims, whose lives have been shattered by permanent injuries, radiation-induced handicaps, and mental and emotional trauma, this exhibit is a celebration and justification of their horror and pain.
We must not forget, as people of faith and as citizens of this world, that the Enola Gay and the nuclear weapons it carried wrought an atrocity that broke all norms of morality and international relations. Instead of glorifying this tragedy, we should be taking this opportunity to address the suffering unleashed by the Enola Gay, and have an honest discussion about the role of past and present U.S. nuclear policy.
Factual/Reference points:
* Label information on the Enola Gay exhibit and the official statement from the Smithsonian regarding the exhibit is available from the National Air and Space Museum. To view this information online, go to: http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/pressroom/releases/110703.htm.
* The 140,000 casualty number is widely available from a number of places, including in official statistics from a 1994 report from the Department of Energy, available online at the American Airpower Heritage Museum’s Web site, http://www.airpowermuseum.org/trafter.html.
* The quote from General John “Jack” Dailey was given to the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Policy, and is available here: http://www.enola-gay.org/#principles.
* The statement from Hidankyo and Gensuikyo is available online at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/
* Several groups and individuals will gather on December 15, the opening day of the Enola Gay exhibit, to openly protest the exhibit, and to call on the Smithsonian to exhibit the Enola Gay in a context that shows the mass destruction it helped cause. More information, including a complete list of individuals and groups that have signed on to support this demonstration, can be found at www.enola-gay.org.
Michael Jones is the Communications Associate at Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement. He was a field organizer for the late Senator Paul Wellstone’s 2002 re-election campaign, and holds a master’s degree in magazine, newspaper and online journalism from Syracuse University. |
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Hiroshima Survivors Slam US As Atomic Bomber Enola Gay Goes On Show |
by AFP
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
12 Dec 2003
|
WASHINGTON - Fifty-eight years after they were engulfed by a firestom set off by a US atom bomb, Hiroshima blast survivors pleaded with the United States to honor their pain before the plane used in the raid goes on public display.
Three aging Hiroshima victims travelled from Japan to lodge written protests with President George W. Bush and the National Air and Space Museum, before the bomber, dubbed Enola Gay, goes on display to the public on Monday.
They accuse the museum of dishonoring the memory of tens of thousands of civilians killed in the blast, and a second atom bomb attack on Nagasaki in 1945, by not displaying casualty figures next to the plane.
"If the Enola Gay is going to be displayed, they should also say what happened beneath the plane on a day the bomb was dropped," said Sunao Tsuboi, who was around a mile (kilometer) from the epicenter of the blast on August 6, 1945.
"I was under this cloud," Tsuboi, who still bears the scars from the blast, said at a press conference, as he pointed to an enlarged photo of a mushroom cloud towering over Hiroshima minutes after the attack.
The Enola Gay, a gleaming sliver B-29 Superfortress bomber goes on public display at a new annex of the National Air and Space Museum, near Dulles airport outside Washington on Monday.
It will bear a label describing it as the "most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II."
The text mentions the technological prowess of the aircraft and how it "found its niche on the other side of the globe."
"On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan."
Survivors claim the exhibit ignores the agony of around 230,000 people killed in the blast and from subsequent radiation poisoning, as well as the decades of pain endured by those who were injured.
The museum's director, retired general John Dailey, has resisted groups who want the death toll included.
"We don't do it for other airplanes," he told AFP. "From a consistency standpoint, we focus on the technical aspects."
In a petition signed by 25,000 people sent to Bush and Dailey, survivors say they cannot "repress our deep astonishment and anger."
"To exalt this Enola Gay -- which caused an unprecedented atrocity that violated all norms of morality and international law -- as testimony to "technological achievement" is completely unacceptable to the atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Also see: Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy
http://www.enola-gay.org/
© Copyright 2003 AFP
http://www.afp.com |
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