In our honors 110 class we discussed “in situ” vs “in context” museum exhibits. “In situ” refers to exhibits that are just visual and have little written explanations to accompany them. On the other hand, “in context” exhibits have more written information. In the article from the Japanese Times, Dik Daso tells us that the aircraft in the Air and Space Museum are merely displayed, “There’s no descriptive information out on any of these of what they were capable of doing. . . .” He tells us that the Air and Space museum is “place is primarily a technology museum.” We must then question the appropriateness of providing the conflicting views of the historical background accompanied with the Enola Gay aircraft in the museum.

However, we also explored “official stories, “unofficial stories,” and “hidden stories.” In the case of the proposed Enola Gay Exhibit the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy says that displaying the Enola Gay merely as a technological advancement 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 can see that while the above issues may disagree with each other, and there was much more conflict on the nature and background of the exhibit, it is important to look at the purpose and goal of the exhibit when deciding what it should contain.