Three days after the 1945 Hiroshima bombing, the US dropped another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The exhibit that was planned to accompany the plane, The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, has been cancelled after more than a year of. The Enola Gay has proved contentious for the museum before, when in 1995 portions of its fuselage, undercarriage and engines went on display as part of an exhibition about the atomic bomb, leading to protests. The museum has spent months restoring the B-29 bomber for display in a giant hangar at its Steven Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. John 'Jack' Dailey, director of the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum, the most widely visited museum in the world, has announced plans to display the Enola Gay-the B-29. "When I saw the Enola Gay today, I was overcome by anger," he said. "The first time was on August 6, 1945, when I saw it flying high "This is the second time I have seen the Enola Gay," said Hiroshima survivor Minoru Nishino, 71, who was two kilometres (miles) from the epicentre of the blast, and still bears scars. It will be displayed at the new center raised off the floor on 8-foot-high stands to accommodate other aircraft under its large wings. The text accompanying the plane talks about its technological prowess and how it "found its niche on the other side of the globe". With a wingspan of 141 feet and a gross weight of 137,500 pounds, the Enola Gay is too large and too heavy to be housed intact in the museums flagship building on the National Mall in Washington. "From a consistency standpoint, we focus on the technical aspects." "We don't do it for other airplanes," he told French agency AFP. However the museum's director, retired general John Dailey, has resisted calls for the death toll to be included. Thomas K Siemer, 73, of Columbus, Ohio, was charged with felony destruction of property and loitering, while Gregory Wright of Hagerstown, Maryland, faced a misdemeanour loitering charge.Ī panel of the Enola Gay was dented in the fracas.
Survivors of the bombing are angry that the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum is not displaying casualty figures from the US-led attack.Ībout 140,000 Japanese died in the bombing itself, and many others later.Īround six survivors and 50 peace activists visited the new annex to the museum, some holding pictures of burned victims of the blast. Two men were arrested after red paint symbolising blood was thrown at the Enola Gay, a World War II B-29 bomber. Protests have interrupted the opening of a new US museum display which includes the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Protesters said the exhibit should have included casualty figures Nor is there mention of the claims that the bombing was necessary to force Japans surrender or of the wider controversy about using weapons that could destroy humanity.