Editing Enola Gay (section)

===Exhibition controversy===
[[File:Enola 0079.jpg|thumb|Under the cockpit window of the ''Enola Gay'', while in storage 1987]]
The ''Enola Gay'' became the center of a controversy at the Smithsonian Institution when the museum planned to put its fuselage on public display in 1995 as part of an exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.<ref>Michael J. Hogan, "The Enola Gay Controversy: History, Memory, and the Politics of Presentation", in ''Hiroshima in History and Memory'', ed. Michael J. Hogan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 200-32.</ref> The exhibit, ''The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War,'' was drafted by the Smithsonian's [[National Air and Space Museum]] staff, and arranged around the restored ''Enola Gay''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gallagher |first=Edward |url=http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/enola/ |title=History on Trial: The Enola Gay Controversy |publisher=Lehigh University |access-date=3 August 2010 |archive-date=4 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704164733/http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/enola/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Critics of the planned exhibit, especially those of the [[American Legion]] and the [[Air Force Association]], charged that the exhibit focused too much attention on the Japanese casualties inflicted by the nuclear bomb, rather than on the motives for the bombing or the discussion of the bomb's role in ending the conflict with Japan.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/ |title=Enola Gay Archive: The Enola Gay and the Smithsonian |newspaper=Air Force Association |year=1996 |access-date=3 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026053308/http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/ |archive-date=26 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Doyle |first=Debbie Ann |url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2003/historians-protest-new-enola-gay-exhibit |title=Historians protest new Enola Gay exhibit |journal=Perspectives on History |issn=0743-7021 |volume=41 |issue=9 |date=December 2003 |access-date=8 May 2015 |archive-date=27 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927202120/https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2003/historians-protest-new-enola-gay-exhibit |url-status=live }}</ref> The exhibit brought to national attention many long-standing [[debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|academic and political issues]] related to retrospective views of the bombings. After attempts to revise the exhibit to meet the satisfaction of competing interest groups, the exhibit was canceled on 30 January 1995. [[Martin O. Harwit]], Director of the National Air and Space Museum, was compelled to resign over the controversy.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/21418541.html?dids=21418541:21418541&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+3%2C+1995&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=21&desc=Head+of+Air%2C+Space+Museum+Quits+Over+Enola+Gay+Exhibit |title=Head of Air, Space Museum Quits Over Enola Gay Exhibit |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=3 May 1995 |access-date=25 April 2013 |archive-date=19 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619072259/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/21418541.html?dids=21418541:21418541&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+3%2C+1995&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=21&desc=Head+of+Air%2C+Space+Museum+Quits+Over+Enola+Gay+Exhibit |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Meyer |first=Eugene L. |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/19559669.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+3%2C+1995&author=Eugene+L.+Meyer&desc=Air+and+Space+Museum+Chief+Resigns%3B+Harwit+Cites+Furor+Over+A-Bomb+Exhibit |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130630045417/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/19559669.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+3,+1995&author=Eugene+L.+Meyer&desc=Air+and+Space+Museum+Chief+Resigns;+Harwit+Cites+Furor+Over+A-Bomb+Exhibit |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 June 2013 |title=Air and Space Museum Chief Resigns: Harwit Cites Furor Over A-Bomb Exhibit |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=3 May 1995 |access-date=25 April 2013 }}</ref> He later reflected that

{{Blockquote|The dispute was not simply about the atomic bomb. Rather, the dispute was sometimes a symbolic issue in a "culture war" in which many Americans lumped together the seeming decline of American power, the difficulties of the domestic economy, the threats in world trade and especially Japan's successes, the loss of domestic jobs, and even changes in American gender roles and shifts in the American family. To a number of Americans, the very people responsible for the script were the people who were changing America. The bomb, representing the end of World War II and suggesting the height of American power was to be celebrated. It was, in this judgment, a crucial symbol of America's "good war", one fought justly for noble purposes at a time when America was united. Those who in any way questioned the bomb's use were, in this emotional framework, the enemies of America.{{sfn|Bernstein|1995|p=238}} }}

The forward fuselage went on display on 28 June 1995. On 2 July 1995, three people were arrested for throwing ash and human blood on the aircraft's fuselage, following an earlier incident in which a protester had thrown red paint over the gallery's carpeting.<ref>{{cite news |last=Correll |first=John T. |url=http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/07-16.asp |title=Enola Gay Archive: Presenting the Enola Gay |newspaper=Air Force Association |date=August 1995 |page=19 |access-date=8 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101013052245/http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/07-16.asp |archive-date=13 October 2010}}</ref> The exhibition closed on 18 May 1998 and the fuselage was returned to the Garber Facility for final restoration.<ref name="Restoration" />