A committee of scholars, veterans, clergy, activists, students, and other interested individuals is now forming to challenge the Smithsonian's plans to exhibit the Enola Gay solely as a "magnificent technological achievement." The planned exhibit is devoid not only of historical context and discussion of the ongoing controversy surrounding the bombings, but even of basic information regarding the number of casualties. We have formulated the following statement of principles, which we plan to circulate widely. The statement makes clear that we are not opposed to exhibiting the plane in a fair and responsible manner, but that we fear that such a celebratory exhibit both legitimizes what happened in 1945 and helps build support for the Bush administration's dangerous new nuclear policies. We, in fact, welcome and intend to initiate a national discussion of both the 1945 bombings and of current nuclear issues. But before we launch a public campaign and officially contact the Smithsonian, we seek endorsements of the statement from a small number of prominent individuals who can help the effort gain credibility and attract media attention. More active participation is, of course, welcome and desirable. Most immediately, though, please let us know if we can add your name to our list and how you would like to be identified.

Peter Kuznick
Professor of History and Director Nuclear Studies Institute, American University

Kevin Martin
Executive Director, Peace Action

Daniel Ellsberg
Author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy

Statement of Principles

Gen. John "Jack" Dailey, director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the most widely visited museum in the world, has announced plans to display the Enola Gay--the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima--as the centerpiece of the museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport. That August 6, 1945 attack, according to recent estimates, resulted in over 140,000 deaths. A second atomic bomb dropped three days later on the city of Nagasaki caused an estimated 70,000 deaths. And as many scientists warned in advance would happen, and as President Truman clearly understood, the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki initiated a nuclear arms race that threatened to bring about the annihilation of the human species, a danger that persists today.

Recognizing the momentous implications of the onset of the nuclear age, in 1999 a national panel of distinguished journalists and scholars voted the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the most significant news event of the 20th century. Yet, in a statement reflecting extraordinary callousness toward the victims, indifference to the deep divisions among American citizens about the propriety of these actions, and disregard for the feelings of most of the world's peoples, museum director Dailey declared, "We are displaying it [the Enola Gay] in all of its glory as a magnificent technological achievement." The plane, in fact, differs little from other B-29s and gains its notoriety only from the deadly and history-altering nature of its mission.

Dailey's remarks are particularly shocking in light of the criticism of the bombing by General Dwight Eisenhower and the questions raised by so many other WWII military leaders, sentiments best reflected in the haunting comments of Admiral William Leahy, Truman's wartime chief of staff who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who poignantly observed, "the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender….in being the first to use it, we adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages."

People throughout the world have already raised powerful objections to the exhibit. Hidankyo, the main survivors' organization in Japan, and Gensuikyo, the Japan Council Against A and H Bombs, have written to Dailey, insisting, "The display rationalizes the bombing and as such it is absolutely unforgiveable….Atomic bombs massacre civilians indiscriminately and are weapons that cannot be justified in humanitarian terms. Even now, many victims continue to suffer the after-effects." Nor can Americans acquiesce to an exhibit that implicitly celebrates the atomic bombings while avoiding all of the crucial questions. By its mishandling of these issues in 1995, the Smithsonian cast international doubt upon the integrity, decency, and fairmindedness of American institutions. We hope to avert a similar outcome this time. We have therefore formed an ad-hoc coalition of religious leaders, veterans, scientists, historians and other scholars, citizen activists, and students united by our conviction that such an exhibit must not go forward as planned.

We are not, however, opposed to exhibiting the Enola Gay. Much to the contrary, we welcome any exhibition that will spur an honest and balanced discussion of the atomic bombings of 1945 and of current U.S. nuclear policy. Our greatest concern is that the disturbing issues raised by the atomic bombings in 1945 will not be addressed in the planned exhibit and that President Truman's use of atomic weapons will legitimize the Bush administration's current effort to lower the threshold for future use of nuclear weapons. Whatever the National Air and Space Museum's conscious intention, any effort to treat the atomic bombings of 1945 in a celebratory fashion or to display the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb solely as a "magnificent technological achievement" can only dishonor the museum and the nation and serve the purposes of those who seek to normalize nuclear weapons and facilitate their future use.

We intend to use this exhibit, the presidential elections, and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings to stimulate a national discussion of U.S. nuclear history and current policy and to work with like-minded groups in other nations. Most Americans remain unaware of the policy changes adopted in the 2001 U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, which prompted the New York Times to editorially condemn the U.S. as a "nuclear rogue" nation, and of the measures taken by the Bush administration to produce a new generation of "more usable" nuclear weapons. The significance has not been lost on international leaders. In his stirring Peace Declaration on August 6 of this year, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba warned, "The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse. The chief cause is U.S. nuclear policy that, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear first strike and calling for resumed research into mini-nukes and other so-called 'useable nuclear weapons,' appears to worship nuclear weapons…." Or as Joseph Cirincione, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's nuclear expert, noted, the Bush administration is now "saying that nuclear weapons are no longer the weapon of last resort…"

To initiate this desperately needed national conversation on nuclear arms policy, past and present, the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy calls upon Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small, John Dailey, and other leaders of the Smithsonian to sit down with our representatives and those of other interested organizations and to jointly plan a balanced exhibit that places the bombings in their historical context, educates viewers about the consequences of past nuclear weapons use, and explains the controversy surrounding the use of the atomic bombs that antedates the deployment of the Enola Gay itself.

We also call on the Smithsonian to co-sponsor a joint conference or a series of conferences that explore the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the place of nuclear weapons in the modern world. Given the seriousness of the current nuclear crisis, should the Smithsonian not accede to this request for a fair and balanced presentation and a reasoned discussion of the many profound issues involved, we will join with others in this country and around the world to protest the exhibit in its present form and to catalyze a national discussion of critical nuclear issues.

Early Signers Include:

Jean-Christophe Agnew, Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University

Gar Alperovitz, Author, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb & Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam; Bauman Professor of Political Economy, University of Maryland

Joyce Appleby, Professor Emerita of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Thomas Bender, Professor of History, New York University

Susan Porter Benson, Professor of History, University of Connecticut

Kai Bird, coeditor, Hiroshima's Shadow and Author, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms

Casey Nelson Blake, Professor of History and American Studies, Columbia University

William Blum, Former State Dept. official, freelance journalist, author of Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower

Julian Bond, Professor, School of Public Affairs, American University; Department of History, The University of Virginia

Paul S. Boyer, Merle Curti Professor of History Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Barbara Brooks, Professor of History, City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Rogers Brubaker, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

Una Chaudhuri, Professor of English and Drama, New York University

Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder

Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University

Steven Cohen, Professor of Education, Tufts University

Barry Commoner, Director Emeritus, Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Queens College, CUNY

E.L. Doctorow, Author

John W. Dower, Professor of History, MIT; Author, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

Daniel Ellsberg, Author, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Sara M. Evans, Professor of History, University of Minnesota

Lane Fenrich, Professor of History, Northwestern University

Michael Frisch, Professor of History/ Senior Research Scholar, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Joseph Gerson, Director of Programs, American Friends Service Committee, New England Regional Office

John Gillis, Professor of History, Rutgers University

Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia University

David Glassberg, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Linda Gordon, Professor of History, New York University

Laura Hein, Professor of History, Northwestern University

Margot A. Henriksen, Professor of History, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Author, Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age

Hosea Hirata, Professor, Director of the Japanese Program, Tufts University

Stanley Hoffmann, Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University

Gerald Horne, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of African-American History, University of Houston

Matthew Frye Jacobson, Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University

Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University

Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University

Ron Kovic, Author, Born on the Fourth of July

Wendy Kozol, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, Oberlin College

David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Peter J. Kuznick, Professor of History, Director, Nuclear Studies Institute, American University

Walter LaFeber, Professor of History, Cornell University

Norman Lear

Richard Ned Lebow, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

Susan E. Lederer, Professor of History of Medicine, History, Yale University
Steve Leeper, US representative, World Conference of Mayors for Peace

Mark H. Leff, Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Norman Levitt, Professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University

Susan Lindee, Professor of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania; Author, Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima

Robert Jay Lifton, Visiting Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Co-author, Hiroshima in America

Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy & Environmental Research

Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action

Paul H. Mattingly, Professor of History; Director, Program in Public History, New York University

Elaine Tyler May, Professor of American Studies and History, University of Minnesota; Author, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era

Robert W. McChesney, Research Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Brent Meeker, Science and Engineering Fellow of the Naval Air System Command

Everett Mendelsohn, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University

Zia Mian, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University

Richard H. Minear, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Translator of Hiroshima literature

David Montgomery, Farnam Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University

Bradford Morrow, Author, Trinity Fields and Ariel's Crossing; Professor of Literature, Bard College

Robert K. Musil, Executive Director and CEO, Physicians for Social Responsibility

David Nasaw, Distinguished Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center

Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

John Polanyi, Nobel Laureate, Chemistry, 1986

Leo P. Ribuffo, Society of the Cincinnati George Washington Distinguished Professor, Department of History, George Washington University

Robert J. Richards, Professor of History, Philosophy, and Psychology and Director, Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine, University of Chicago

Daniel T. Rodgers, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Princeton University

Roy Rosenzweig, Professor of History and Director Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

Andrew Ross, Professor of American Studies, New York University

Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1995

Eric Schneider, Associate Director for Academic Affairs, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

Mark Selden, Professor of Sociology and History, Binghamton University; Author, The Atomic Bomb. Voices From Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Charles Sheehan-Miles, Veterans for Common Sense; Executive Director, Nuclear Policy Research Institute

Ann Sherif, Professor of East Asian Studies, Oberlin College

Michael Sherry, Richard W. Leopold Professor of History, Northwestern University; Author, The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon

Martin J. Sherwin, Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History, Tufts University; Author, A World Destroyed

Rev. William Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Association

Damu Smith, founder, Black Voices for Peace

Alan Sokal, Professor of Physics, New York University

Paul Spickard, Professor of History and Asian American Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Jessica Wang, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles

Robert Westbrook, Professor of History, University of Rochester

John Whittier Treat, Professor of Japanese, Yale University; Author, Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb

Frank von Hippel, Professor of Public & International Affairs of the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

Daniel J. Walkowitz, Director, Metropolitan Studies, Professor of History, New York University

Charles Weiner, Professor Emeritus, History of Science and Technology, MIT.

Richard Weiss, Professor of History, UCLA

Geoffrey White. Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawaii

Jon Wiener, Professor of History, UC Irvine

Garry Wills, Author, Lincoln at Gettysburg

Lawrence S. Wittner, Professor of History, State University of New York, Albany

Lisa Yoneyama, Professor of Cultural Studies and U.S.-Japan Studies, Department of Literature, University of California, San Diego

Marilyn B. Young, Professor of History, New York University

Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus, History, Boston University; Author, A People's History of the United States

(Institutional affiliations added for purposes of identification only.)

Related Links

Harry Truman on Trial: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb (HNN)

Hiroshima ... The Anniversary We Misremember (HNN)