![the enola gay controversy the enola gay controversy](https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb525-The-Atomic-Bomb-and-the-End-of-World-War-II/photos/little-boy-3.jpg)
His full-scale investigation of the historical dispute results in a compelling story of how and why our views about the bombing of Japan have evolved since its occurrence. Newman explores the tremendous challenges that NASM faced when trying to construct a narrative that would satisfy American veterans and the Japanese, as well as accurately reflect the current historical research on both the period and the bomb.
![the enola gay controversy the enola gay controversy](https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb525-The-Atomic-Bomb-and-the-End-of-World-War-II/photos/little-boy-1.jpg)
Newman’s argument centers on the controversy that erupted around the National Air and Space Museum’s (NASM) exhibit of Enola Gay in 1995. Newman offers a fresh perspective on the dispute over President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II. Related collections at the Truman Library include the Atomic Bomb Collection.In this hard-hitting, thoroughly researched, and crisply argued book, award-winning historian Robert P. Nicks collected the materials in his capacity as a member of the Air Force Association. The materials were originally compiled by the Air Force Association, an organization that led the fight against the exhibit plan. Included in this collection are press articles commenting on the controversy, public statements by interested parties, and correspondence between veterans, historians, members of Congress, and officials of the National Air and Space Museum and its parent agency, the Smithsonian Institution. The Enola Gay was exhibited at the museum the following summer without the text, photographs, or artifacts that had created the controversy. After an extended controversy and failed negotiations between the designers and their critics, the planned exhibit was cancelled in January 1995. Detailed plans for the exhibit were released to the public in advance, and they sparked anger among veterans, members of Congress, and other critics, who accused the exhibit designers of portraying the use of the bomb as an immoral act and focusing too much on the suffering of Japanese victims. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of that event, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington planned to restore the aircraft and present it as part of an exhibit on the atomic bomb and the end of World War II.
![the enola gay controversy the enola gay controversy](https://aliciapatterson.org/sites/default/files/styles/node_image/public/Klein05_0.jpg)
The Enola Gay was the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The papers of Ben Nicks consist primarily of newspaper and magazine articles, press releases, and correspondence relating to the Enola Gay Controversy. These materials were compiled by the Air Force Association, an organization that was active in opposing the original plans developed by the National Air and Space Museum for the Enola Gay exhibit. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.īen Nicks, a veteran of World War II and member of the Air Force Association, donated to the Truman Library a collection of materials documenting the Enola Gay Controversy. Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. The papers of Ben Nicks consist of newspaper and magazine articles, press releases, and correspondence related to the controversy surrounding the planned exhibit of the Enola Gay at the National Air and Space Museum Ĭopyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection.