History 261 Section 10B: Case Studies of Atomic Bomb/Smithsonian Controversy (Discussion Project #5)
Discussion Project (due at the end of Section 10B): Bring to class a museum-style exhibit based on the twelve images found below. For each image, provide a typed caption of 1-2 sentences, written as if you were a museum curator explaining the historical context and the specific meaning(s) of the images for the text panels of an exhibit aimed at the general viewing public. In addition, provide a brief introduction for your exhibit as a whole, about one paragraph in length and not to exceed one single-spaced typed page. Detailed directions follow.
Overview of the Smithsonian/Enola Gay Controversy
In the mid-1990s, the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution found itself at the center of the "culture wars" over history, politics, and memory. Curators at the Air and Space Museum planned an exhibit to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan by the United States. The original exhibit was called "The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb, and the Origins of the Cold War."
Under sustained criticism by veterans groups (led by the Air Force Association), the Smithsonian revised the exhibit under a new title: "The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II." After a new round of criticism by historians, the Smithsonian ultimately canceled the planned exhibit and displayed only the fuselage of the Enola Gay airplane that dropped the first atomic bomb. (In 2003, the Smithsonian began displaying the Enola Gay in its entirety in a Virginia annex, based on the airplane's status as a "magnificent technological achievement.")
"Crossroads" or "Last Act"? The six readings below provide context for the political debate over the Smithsonian exhibit and the deeper historical arguments at stake. [Recall that the Enola Gay controversy occurred at the same time as the debate over National History Standards]. The Smithsonian Institution originally claimed to be taking a neutral stance on the "difficult moral and political questions" involved in the atomic bombing of Japan, but this did not defuse the political showdown over who owns the memory of the past, over competing historical interpretations, over who should control public history.
Part I: Six articles to read before completing the Discussion Project
"War Stories at Air and Space" (Air Force Magazine, April 1994)
"The Enola Gay: A Nation's, and a Museum's, Dilemma" (Editorial by Martin Harwit, Director of the National Air and Space Museum, Washington Post, Aug. 7, 1994)
"'The Last Act' at Air and Space" (Air Force Magazine, Sept. 1994)
"Forgetting the Bomb: The Assault on History" (Martin J. Sherwin, Professor of History at Tufts University, The Nation, May 15, 1995)
Letter to the Smithsonian from the Historians Committee for Open Debate on Hiroshima (July 31, 1995)
"Presenting the Enola Gay" (Air Force Magazine, Aug. 1995)
Part II: twelve images to identify in your museum exhibit
Now click on the links below, print out the images, and write your own explanatory text panels for sequential display as a museum exhibit. Restrict each text panel to two sentences at most. Be prepared to defend your representations of these images, and critique those offered by others in your section, with sensitivity to the demands of public history. Also your introductory summary should offer your own analysis of how these images are (or are not) connected to one another given the crossroads/last act controversy and the broader debates over the reasons why the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, over who was responsible for this action (in the "difficult moral and political" sense), and over the legacies of these events.
In addition to the above articles, you can find more information about the historical background for these images by consulting this side-by-side comparison of the initial "Crossroads" draft and the second "Last Act" draft of the canceled Smithsonian exhibition. (The final "Japan Surrenders" section of the first draft contains the historical arguments linking the atomic bombing to the Cold War nuclear arms race). These exhibit drafts are lengthy and you do not need to read them in their entirety; rather you can consult them for references as you prepare your text panels and make your own interpretative choices.
Comparison of Smithsonian Exhibit Scripts: Nuclear Files Archive
Bring your museum exhibit of these images to Section 10B along with a brief (maximum one single-spaced page) introduction to the portfolio.
1. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (Dec. 7, 1941)
2. Poster, U.S. Office of War Information
3. Japanese Relocation Camp (1942)
4. "Bataan Death March" (Philippines, 1942)
5. Firebombing of Tokyo (March, 1945)
7. U.S. Army Photograph, over Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)
9. U.S. Army Photograph, over Nagasaki (August 9, 1945)
11. "Victory over Japan" Day in Times Square (August 14, 1945)
12. Enola Gay fuselage on display at the Smithsonian (late 1990s)
