The Enola Gay: Nothing to Celebrate!
Protest at National Air and Space Museum

On August 6, 2005, about 30 people were at the National Air and Space Museum, where the Enola Gay is on exhibit.   They held signs in remembrance of innocent lives lost in war and the tragedy of nuclear weapons that still looms large. Going inside, they knelt in front of the Enola Gay for half an hour in silence and then processed outside for reflections and closing prayer. There was moderate media coverage and no arrests. They fully disclosed plans and intentions to the museum security and arranged a scenario that was mutually suitable.

The following letter was signed by those present and delivered to a representative of NASM.

General John R. Dailey
Smithsonian Institution 
NASM – 3510 MRC 310 
P.O. Box 37012
Washington D.C. 20013 -07012

August 6, 2005

Dear General Dailey:

A group of us have come to the National Air and Space Museum on this 60 th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima to commemorate the deaths caused by the first nuclear attack and to bear witness to the present dangers that nuclear weapons pose to all creation. The decision to bomb Hiroshima was disputed in President Truman's cabinet in 1945 and remains a contentious issue today. We have come not to ask you to rewrite history but to reveal it. To limit the exhibit to its technology is to conceal the reality of what the Enola Gay represents to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.

The Enola Gay exhibit is awesome. The wingspan alone is breathtaking. The warplane is an artifact of aviation with technological and historical significance. It is also recognized as the vessel for the most lethal single attack on an enemy nation ever levied. We are asking that the exhibit's image of this glorified achievement include its dark reality and legacy that overshadows us today. Without a sobering image of the dangers of this technological achievement we can forget the horror of nuclear war and believe in it as the resolution to our conflicts.

To conceal the historical significance of the plane is to abrogate responsibility to expose this artifact for what it is. Some consider its mission to be the “media event of the [20 th ] century.” We cannot compartmentalize an artifact for only its technological capacity when that same capacity has altered the structures of power in the world today. As well as inspiring the future scientists and engineers to explore the realm of science and to discover the endless fruits of human ingenuity, this exhibit may also lead children to seek the abolition of war, to struggle for peace in the world and discover a way in which we may live more closely as one people without a need for nuclear weapons. Please expand this exhibit to include its historical significance and current relevance to our society.

Thank you for your time in reading this letter. I am interested to hear your point of view in these matters and would appreciate a response.

Sincerely yours,

Brian Buckley

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