Japanese Join American Nay-Sayers in Protesting Enola Gay Exhibit

CNSNews.com ^ | Dec 11, 2003 | Susan Jones

[microgood]

CNSNews.com) - Survivors of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Japan plan to protest the Smithsonian Institution's new aircraft museum in suburban Virginia, because the exhibit includes the Enola Gay -- the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

The Japanese will be joined by Americans who strongly oppose the Bush administration's nuclear policies.

The Smithsonian Institution's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - an annex of the Air and Space Museum -- is scheduled to open on Monday in a huge new building near Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va.

In anticipation of that event, several delegations of atomic bomb survivors were arriving in the Washington area on Thursday.

The survivors say they strongly object to the way the Enola Gay is being exhibited -- "without mention of the human suffering caused by the bomb it dropped in the city of Hiroshima," as they said in a press release.

They plan to present a petition of grievance to Smithsonian officials.

The survivors said they "are also hoping to generate a discussion of the Bush administration's below-the-radar drive to put the U.S. back in the nuclear bomb-making business."

Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb aren't the only ones urging the Smithsonian to rethink its exhibit.

Another group, The Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy," headed by an American University professor, said it has collected over 400 signatures, including those of Nobel laureates, urging the Smithsonian to present a "balanced discussion" of the atomic bombings in 1945 and of current U.S. nuclear policy.

The anti-nuke committee said the Air and Space Museum's exhibition of the Enola Gay "dishonors the museum and the nation and serves the purposes of those who seek to normalize nuclear weapons and facilitate their future use."

"The celebration of a weapon that delivered an atomic attack, in the context of the administration's pursuit of new nukes and its 'do as we say, not as we do' non-proliferation policy, sends the world the wrong message," said Kevin Martin, a member of the anti-nuke committee.

"America's credibility in the international community, particularly on the issue of weapons of mass destruction, is low enough already," Martin added. "We must have an honest conversation about what it means to have used nuclear weapons and the implications of designing new nuclear weapons while maintaining a stockpile of over 10,000 nuclear warheads."

On Monday, Dec. 15, the Japanese survivors and American protestors plan to hold what they call a "solemn, dignified demonstration" in front of the Enola Gay, at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

Protesters said they will carry full-size photos of the damage and suffering inflicted by the atomic bombs.

History speaks for itself, veterans say

On the other side of the argument stands the pilot of the Enola Gay -- retired Brig.-Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, now 88 years old.

Tibbets recently visited the Smithsonian's new aircraft museum annex, and he was quoted as saying that the protestors are ignoring the reason the atomic bomb was dropped. "Casualties are part of war ... but this is not the ground on which you argue those facts," Tibbets was quoted as telling a Japanese television crew.

He and other American veterans note that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced a quicker end to World War II, saving many American -- and Japanese -- lives.

The Smithsonian exhibit includes about 80 planes and more than 2,000 artifacts.

It is expected to be one of the Washington area's major tourist attractions.

[hasegawasama]

Oh the people of Japan deserved everything? We were brainwashed. We didn't know any better. We didn't know anything else. Think twice before referring to people as "Japs".