The Enola Gay Controversy

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The Enola Gay is a B-29 bomber that was used in the bombing of Japan. It was flown by the pilot, Paul Tibbets who named the plane after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. Tibbets flew the plane on August 6, 1945, carrying a bomb, nicknamed Little Boy that was a result of the Manhattan Project. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima and left tens of thousands of people dead (“Enola Gay pilot felt dropping atomic bomb was his duty.”). The dropping of the bombs, Big Boy and Little Boy caused a lot of controversy, because of the repercussions it left in Japan. Many thousands of people died or suffered injury as a result of the bombing. The pilot of the Enola Gay stated in an interview, “I viewed my mission as one to save lives...I didn't bomb Pearl Harbor. I didn't start the war. But I was going to finish it.” (“Enola Gay pilot felt dropping atomic bomb was his duty”). Many people consider Paul Tibbets a symbol of atomic warfare, but we must remember that he was a pilot following orders. He honestly believed that if he had not dropped the bomb, “It would have been morally wrong if we'd have had that weapon and not used it and let a million more people die” (“Enola Gay pilot felt dropping atomic bomb was his duty”). Tibbets said this in a PBS interview for the 50th anniversary of the event. The use of the Enola Gay in the Great War or World War I was controversial because of its use in the bombing of Japanese citizens, many of whom were not soldiers. Another controversy in which the Enola Gay is involved is known simply as the Enola Gay Controversy.
The Enola Gay Controversy was about putting the Enola Gay on display for a museum exhibit. Veterans groups wanted it on display. The Smithsonian had the bomber, but it was disassembled and many thieves ...

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...ependence” by abandoning its original purpose (Kohn, Richard, 1036).
The danger of misusing history in the case of the Enola Gay Controversy is leaving out an entire story. The argument can be made that a nationalistic history does not need to be complete, but a complete history is important. The museum as well as its curators for the Enola Gay exhibit was trying to fuse the two histories and the veterans were pushing a skewed nationalistic version of the history. In an effort to give a complete history, the history of the Enola Gay were used, skewed and misused because the museum was making an effort to make all of the groups happy, but the history of the Enola Gay is a controversial history, so making everyone happy was impossible. This is the reason that the original exhibit did not come into fruition because all of the parties could not agree on the history.

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