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It contained several major components of the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber used in the atomic mission that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan. The eventual cancellation of the proposed exhibit should therefore be understood as indicative of far wider ideological battles in US culture. Enola Gay This past exhibition, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, told the story of the role of the Enola Gay in securing Japanese surrender. Instead, the culture wars have given rise to a new climate for debate, one in which personal conviction based on strong emotions far outweigh any well-reasoned argument based on logic and dispassionate research. This dissertation will argue that the controversy, as part of the wider culture wars, helped lead to a rejection of such notions as compromise and settling disputes through reasoned debate in American political and cultural discourse. This dissertation therefore seeks to understand how the controversy related to, and had had an impact upon, other debates in the culture wars such as those surrounding provocative art, sexual orientation, and the teaching of history in US schools. Proposed Exhibition In 1987, NASM hired Martin Harwit as their new director. Only the fuselage was on display, accompanied by basic facts and information about the plane's restoration. Unlike the cancelled exhibition, ' Enola Gay ' contained no interpretation, no graphic images, and no melted objects. Linenthal, who was on the advisory board of the Enola Gay exhibit. On June 28, 1995, an exhibition, simply titled ' Enola Gay ,' opened at the National Air and Space Museum.
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However, the museum felt ambivalence about the plane’s eventual display, described historian Edward T. Although this is certainly part of the story, there has been no serious attempt at establishing the location of the controversy within the wider cultural battles in the US. Restoration efforts by the Smithsonian started on December 5, 1984. In displaying the Enola Gay without analysis of the event that gave the B-29. The NASM and the Smithsonian lost, not only for the obvious reasons of wasted effort. The resulting dispute has traditionally been understood as a clash between commemorative and critical voices in the US. Kohn The cancellation of the National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) original Enola Gay exhibition in January 1995 may constitute the worst tragedy to befall the public presentation of history in the United States in this generation. With the cancellation of the original Enola Gay exhibit, everyone lost.
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The controversy surrounded the preparations for an exhibit of the Enola Gay – the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima – at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II. This dissertation seeks to place the so-called Enola Gay controversy of 1994-5 into the wider context of the culture wars in the United States. The exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II featuring the refurbished B-29 Enola Gay proposed by the Smithsonians National Air and.