Enola Gay

Whenever there are catastrophic disasters in any country, two things happen. An official story, or what some refer to as a “cover story,” goes out to the people who are not directly involved with the situation. Reassurances of everything being alright or even of justice being served will spew out of the government sources so that citizens do not feel totally alarmed. When it came to the bombing in Hiroshima, however, many still believed that the bombing was utterly wrong and caused nothing but havoc, destruction, and pain. So when a museum is faced with the desire to display our history, it has to choose one of three directions. According to the articles provided, many of the veterans believed that with this exhibit people would be further vindicated to judge those who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the exhibit finally came up, going by the pictures from the museum’s website, it was more contextual than in situ. After all, to display what it was truly like bombing Japan would probably lead to far more negative feelings against those who were given the task of performing the mission. Many historians and veterans were still upset with the exhibit, and it came down not too long after being put up. Sometimes, even museums–who attempt to show the true course of history–show too much bias to allow everyone to feel at peace with their exhibits. If they were meaning to shock, job well done.