The Smithsonian is currently seen neither as a national library nor as a research institute. Today the possibility of a similar congressional investigation hangs threateningly over the Smithsonian. Henry won, but not before a congressional investigation led by Jewett's backers on Capitol Hill put Henry's leadership to the test. The issue then was whether the Smithsonian should be the national library, as the librarian Charles Coffin Jewett wanted, or a research institute, as Secretary Joseph Henry preferred. They were arrested, ticketed and released.Not since 1855 has the Smithsonian been riven by a controversy to equal that precipitated by the proposed Enola Gay exhibit. Magno was among protesters who interrupted the opening of the exhibit of the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. CAPTION: OPENING DAY PROTEST Paul Magno prays at the entrance to the Enola Gay exhibit at the Air and Space Museum. The protesters said they wanted more debate about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. "They did an excellent, excellent job of not showing the tragedy of it," said Bob Russell, of Arkansas, "but still making it so that people understand." CAPTION: Paul Magno is among the 21 protesters arrested at the entrance to the Enola Gay display at the National Air and Space Museum. Most of the visitors on the exhibit's first morning gave it good reviews. "The kids really needed to see more of what the atomic bomb can do so that when they grow up, they don't think war is the answer," she said. "It shows the intention of people who flew the mission very clearly," she said, "but doesn't show the result for humanity nearly as well." Those men were following orders and won the war."īut Kathleen Curtis, on vacation from Fresno, Calif., emerged from the exhibit and called it "fairly one-sided."
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"We did nothing wrong."īryan Schoenemann, 18, agreed: "Bombs don't kill people people kill people. "My father was in World War II, and this exhibit shows just what happened," she said. Ellen Schoenemann, of Woodbridge, was waiting with her son, Bryan, and they broke into applause as the activists were arrested.
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With tempers flaring, some people in line grew impatient and cheered the police. "Stripping the exhibit is squashing informed public debate and dialogue," he said. He said his group would have liked the exhibit to include more about the 78,000 people who died in the bombing and those who suffered its long-term effects. "The exhibit, as it ended up, is hollow and parrots the established line on the bombing," Vandivier said. World War II veteran Robert Vandivier, wearing a Veterans for Peace button, said he supported the protesters. We have to teach kids to think critically, and they can't do if they are not given all of the information." It's not right to leave out information and be so bland about such a historic event. "The Smithsonian planned to use multiple perspectives on the bomb at the beginning," she said, "but then it just caved in. and books."Ĭatherine Long, of the District, was among about two dozen protesters outside the museum. There is not enough room on the walls for a lengthy debate. Umansky, said it "allows the airplane and the crew to speak for themselves. The exhibit consists mostly of sections of the plane, details about its restoration and comments from the crew. The debate prompted the resignation of museum director Martin O. Although it initially included more historical context, veterans groups and other critics objected that the Japanese were portrayed too much as victims of the bomb, not enough as aggressors in the war. The Enola Gay exhibit has been dogged by controversy for more than a year. Don't you think they would have dropped it on us if they had it?"Ī second wave of protesters went into the exhibit, where they unfurled banners saying, "Never Again." "Some of you wouldn't even be here if we hadn't used the bomb. "They don't know what it's about - we had to win that war," Bailey said. He waited 40 minutes while police cleared protesters from the entrance to the exhibit hall. Bailey, a World War II veteran from Orlando. "You should have prayed 51 years ago," yelled museum-goer John P. They were ticketed under federal nuisance statutes and released, according to a U.S. devastation to the innocent women and children that got bombed," said Siemer, one of 21 protesters who were arrested yesterday afternoon. "We wanted the exhibit to show more of the.
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6, 1945, on Hiroshima, Japan, should have included more debate about the decision to drop the bomb and the destruction it caused. Tom Siemer, a spokesman for the Enola Gay Action Coalition, said the exhibit of the plane that dropped the bomb Aug. Protesters carrying pictures of the victims of the first atom bomb interrupted yesterday's opening of the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.