Enola Gay

[Knave]

A not unsurprising news blurb is stating that the Udvar Hazy facility at Dulles had to rescreen everybody all over again and close its doors temporarily because a group of twenty protesters decided to toss ashes at the Enola Gay exhibit. My guess is the ashes were the remains of their arts degrees from Berkley. Given that next year is the sixtieth anniversary, it might be a good idea to give the facility a miss in August 2005 if these people are going to screw up everyones day by forcing them through the metal detectors again just to prove a point.

By the way, where can I go to protest the bombing of Coventry / Darwin / Pearl Harbour / Nanking / Stalingrad / Rotterdam and Warsaw etc?

[noisy]

I don't think it's very funny to vandalise museum exhibits and I don't see what is to be achieved by throwing ashes at an aeroplane. The nuclear bombings at Nagasaki and Hiroshima were carried out to save American lives. They were terrible events, but you need to take these things in context.

Don't persecute these people, they probably take their freedom for granted.

My, wouldn't this thread look good in AH&N?

[Old Smokey]

If anyone took the time to read military history, they would find that American estimates of casualties ON BOTH SIDES for prospective campaigns was unerringly accurate, to within a few percentage points.

The American estimates for a conventional warfare campaign for the subjugation of Japan were for millions of American AND Japanese lives, far in excess of the (accurately) estimated lives lost at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tokyo was spared the atomic attack, it was not necessary as it was largely destroyed with horrendous loss of life from conventional attacks in March 1945. Where is the protest to that?

Perhaps the ashes thrown were 'symbolic' ashes for the millions of allied AND Japanese lives saved by bringing the war to an abrupt halt.

[Knave]

The people who have organised the campaign against the Enola Gay have stated that they dont mind the exhibit being shown so long as it features a 'responsible' exhibit outlining the evils of nuclear warfare. They also want to link the exhibit to what they describe as the current US administrations desire to develop and use mini tactical nukes in war zones such as Afghanistan for cave busting. Its very political and very contentious.

The Smithsonian has been approached by the protesters ( organised by a professor from American University) with a demand that they tailor the exhibit to reflect their own political views on the subject. The Smithsonian has replied that the exhibit, like all the other aircraft in the hall, is a presentation reflecting technology and engineering history. In short, the Smithsonian wants to exhibit ahistoric aircraft on its technical merits and the protesters want to exhibit a scapegoat for past and present political acts by the White House.

What ticks me off is that the people caught in the middle of this kind of arguement are the visitors and the museum staff. If these kind of antics follow every controversial exhibit around while its on display, pretty soon museums wont be showing controversial exhibits at all, and we all lose. For more info on the 'history wars' ( including the book ), a search of 'Enola Gay' on Google will provide some good results.

[PPRuNe Pop]

This is Aviation History and Nostalgia. I am NOT going to allow people to use it as a forum to put forward their own particular view on a subject that has had millions of words written about it. The subject is over. Not forgotten of course but it is over.

Find another site that will let you air your views. I lived through war, through the Battle of Britain, through the London bombing and I have NO sympathy with anyone who was subjected to the retaliatory bombing that I and my kith and kin endured night after night, year after year. They deserved every ounce of it.

Go ply your pathetic views elsewhere on another site that supports your sympathies.

[Skylark4]

Pop,
Either you are responding to something which isn't there any more or one of us is mis-reading the original post. IMHO.

Mike W

[BEagle]

The offensive rubbish has been removed. Quite rightly so too!

[Peter Barron]

I have NO sympathy with anyone who was subjected to the retaliatory bombing that I and my kith and kin endured night after night, year after year. They deserved every ounce of it.

What, even the inocent Children.

Yes bombing had to be done to end the war, but surely you must have sympathy for all the children that were killed.