"Forgettingthe Bomb: The Assault on History" (Martin J. "'The Last Act' at Airand Space" ( Air Force Magazine, Sept. "TheEnola Gay: A Nation's, and a Museum's, Dilemma" (Editorial by MartinHarwit, Director of the National Air and Space Museum, Washington Post, Aug. "War Stories at Airand Space" ( Air Force Magazine, April 1994) Part I: Six articles toread before completing the Discussion Project The Smithsonian Institution originally claimed to betaking a neutral stance on the "difficult moral and politicalquestions" involved in the atomic bombing of Japan, but this did notdefuse the political showdown over who owns the memory of the past, overcompeting historical interpretations, over who should control public history. "Crossroads" or"Last Act"? The six readings below provide context for the politicaldebate over the Smithsonian exhibit and the deeper historical arguments atstake. (In 2003, the Smithsonian began displayingthe Enola Gay in its entirety in aVirginia annex, based on the airplane's status as a "magnificenttechnological achievement.") Under sustained criticism byveterans groups (led by the Air Force Association), the Smithsonian revised theexhibit under a new title: "The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End ofWorld War II." After a new round of criticism by historians, theSmithsonian ultimately canceled the planned exhibit and displayed only thefuselage of the Enola Gay airplanethat dropped the first atomic bomb. The original exhibit was called "The Crossroads: The End of World War II,the Atomic Bomb, and the Origins of the Cold War." Curators at the Air and Space Museum planned an exhibit to commemorate thefiftieth anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan by the United States. In the mid-1990s, theNational Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution found itself atthe center of the "culture wars" over history, politics, and memory. Overview of theSmithsonian/ Enola Gay Controversy In addition, provide a brief introductionfor your exhibit as a whole, about one paragraph in length and not to exceedone single-spaced typed page. For each image, provide a typed caption of 1-2sentences, written as if you were a museum curator explaining the historicalcontext and the specific meaning(s) of the images for the text panels of anexhibit aimed at the general viewing public. History261 Section 10B: Case Studies of Atomic Bomb/Smithsonian Controversy(Discussion Project #5)ĭiscussion Project(due at the end of Section 10B): Bring to class a museum-style exhibit based onthe twelve images found below.