Censorship and Truth from the Smithsonian

On June 28, 1995 The Enola Gay made its debut as an exhibit in one of Americas finest museums, The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. There was a whirlwind of controversy surround the exhibit years prior to the inauguration of the plane that vastly aided in the end of World War II. Martin Harwit, of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) had made an attempt to revise several previous versions of the exhibit that was seen by many people to suggest that America was the aggressor in the atomic bombing of Japan. Among these people who lashed out toward the exhibit were General Merrill A. McPeak of the U.S. Air Force, and even Paul Tibbets who was the pilot of the plane. Their argument was that previous versions of the exhibit showed an immense amount death and destruction in Japan, yet didn't show enough of America's destruction of Pearl Harbor. They also suggested that it seemed almost tasteless in nature toward Japan to put all of these things in the exhibit for the public to view. The Secretary of the Smithsonian at the time when the exhibit made its initiation, Michael Heyman, decided to put up a simple version of the exhibit on display which left out most of the facts about the day the bomb was dropped on Japan. This was nothing like the previous version the former Secretary Robert McCormick Adams and Martin Harwit of the NASM had fought so hard to attain. They believed that the presentation should accurately portray what the Enola Gay brought upon Japan, and show the aftermath. In my opinion I think that the historians were correct in their original plan. Yes they could have made some revisions to make America seem like she was only retaliating to the devastation at Pearl Harbor, but the overall story of the Enola Gay WAS about bringing the end to the war. Everyone knows that there is casualties in war, and showing those who perished in Japan would not be a sign of America flexing their muscles at other countries saying "look what we can do to you", but rather it is a reminder of the devastation that war brings all countries. That in itself would be a reason to stay peaceful. It seems wrong to change history books and exhibits to censor out things that we might feel uncomfortable with, but the truth of the matter is that they did happen how they happened. It seems like the military felt guilty about the situation and were trying to save face about something that happened 50 years ago, when there is nothing we can do to change it now. I hope in the future we can learn that the truth will sooner or later come out, and history can teach us all how to live the right way.