Oh, no. Not again.

Gato_Solo

Gato_Solo

Out-freaking-standing OTC member
Protests have interrupted the opening of a new US museum display which includes the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

Two men were arrested after red paint symbolising blood was thrown at the Enola Gay, a World War II B-29 bomber.

Survivors of the bombing are angry that the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum is not displaying casualty figures from the US-led attack.

About 140,000 Japanese died in the bombing itself, and many others later.


Around six survivors and 50 peace activists visited the new annex to the museum, some holding pictures of burned victims of the blast.

Thomas K Siemer, 73, of Columbus, Ohio, was charged with felony destruction of property and loitering, while Gregory Wright of Hagerstown, Maryland, faced a misdemeanour loitering charge.

A panel of the Enola Gay was dented in the fracas.

However the museum's director, retired general John Dailey, has resisted calls for the death toll to be included.

"We don't do it for other airplanes," he told French agency AFP.

"From a consistency standpoint, we focus on the technical aspects."

The text accompanying the plane talks about its technological prowess and how it "found its niche on the other side of the globe".

"This is the second time I have seen the Enola Gay," said Hiroshima survivor Minoru Nishino, 71, who was two kilometres (miles) from the epicentre of the blast, and still bears scars.

"The first time was on August 6, 1945, when I saw it flying high in the sky.

"When I saw the Enola Gay today, I was overcome by anger," he said.

Debate

The museum has spent months restoring the B-29 bomber for display in a giant hangar at its Steven Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles International Airport in Washington DC.

The Enola Gay has proved contentious for the museum before, when in 1995 portions of its fuselage, undercarriage and engines went on display as part of an exhibition about the atomic bomb, leading to protests.

Three days after the 1945 Hiroshima bombing, the US dropped another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki.

Within days the Japanese officially surrendered and World War II ended, although debate has raged ever since over whether the act hastened the war's end and saved thousands of lives or was one of the world's worst war crimes.
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Source...

Now here's the $64 question...If no other exhibit has to include damage caused and lives lost, how come so many insist this exhibit does?
 
Here is the $128 question. Do the exhibits at Pearl Harbor show damage statistics?
 
Because it gives people something to bitch and protest about.
Screw 'em.
No special treatment.

Question:
Is there a victim tally at the gates of Auchwitz Concentration Camp in Germany now?
 
Gato_Solo said:
Source...

Now here's the $64 question...If no other exhibit has to include damage caused and lives lost, how come so many insist this exhibit does?
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Because the whining left has to show how sensitive, how compassionate they are. How else would they be able to pat themselves on the back about it. Sad thing is, this vandal will be a hero to a lot of these self-righteous jerks (I edited that last word five times in my head. :D ).

Question:
Is there a victim tally at the gates of Auchwitz Concentration Camp in Germany now?
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Actually, it seems like I've read there are. Totally different situation though, wouldn't you agree?
 
I think their issue is that the plane is being displayed as being ahead of it's time, it's not being displayed as the plane to drop the bomb

and they want it noted.

not saying there right, but I'd be upset if they opened up auschwitz as a display of modern farming techniques, and forgot to mention they also killed tons of people there as well.

I think that the Enola Gay's mission deserves more than a footnote.
 
not saying there right, but I'd be upset if they opened up auschwitz as a display of modern farming techniques, and forgot to mention they also killed tons of people there as well.
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Wasn't it a carpet warehouse for a long time? I could have that wrong, it's been a long time since I read about the holocaust.
 
Don't know, jsut making an example, I don't thing the Gay's display has to list deaths or anything, but it's history shoudl be presented
 
Actually, it seems like I've read there are. Totally different situation though, wouldn't you agree?[/QUOTE]


Yes I would agree but I was just pondering the situations of other tourist sites claiming such destruction.
BTW: I really was asking if the German Labor camps had a list of the damages..I wasn't being a smart ass.

For the record...
If the other planes there do not have a damage toll it's probably for a reason. It would set too much focus on the act itself and make the US horrible for doing such a thing.
If they want the damages and lives lost listed..
I demand that they also include the reason why such measures were employed against Japan.
 
Hoon said:
Actually, it seems like I've read there are. Totally different situation though, wouldn't you agree?
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Yes I would agree but I was just pondering the situations of other tourist sites claiming such destruction.
BTW: I really was asking if the German Labor camps had a list of the damages..I wasn't being a smart ass.

For the record...
If the other planes there do not have a damage toll it's probably for a reason. It would set too much focus on the act itself and make the US horrible for doing such a thing.
If they want the damages and lives lost listed..
I demand that they also include the reason why such measures were employed against Japan.[/QUOTE]


I don't know about all the camps, i saw one on TV with stuff listed.

I thought the Gay was jsut being displayed as a technological wonder of it's time, and totally glossing over it's place in history.

and they is why they where upset, but mention up front at what payload it delivered, and no death tolls, etc.
 
paul_valaru said:
Yes I would agree but I was just pondering the situations of other tourist sites claiming such destruction.
BTW: I really was asking if the German Labor camps had a list of the damages..I wasn't being a smart ass.

For the record...
If the other planes there do not have a damage toll it's probably for a reason. It would set too much focus on the act itself and make the US horrible for doing such a thing.
If they want the damages and lives lost listed..
I demand that they also include the reason why such measures were employed against Japan.
Click to expand...


I don't know about all the camps, i saw one on TV with stuff listed.

I thought the Gay was jsut being displayed as a technological wonder of it's time, and totally glossing over it's place in history.

and they is why they where upset, but mention up front at what payload it delivered, and no death tolls, etc.[/QUOTE]

But that would also mean that the B-29, which is what the Enola Gay is, was used solely to drop the atomic bomb. The Enola Gay was used for more than just that one mission, so should those missions also be included in the damage count? :grumpy:
 
If it was just a B-29 on display, then no. But the Enola Gay is known mostly for it's A-Bomb mission. It is famous for that mission. To put it on display is to glamorize that mission.
 
its a part of history. there really is no reason other than they want to bitch about it. oh and since were talking about Auschwitz here there is a museum in DC for the Holocaust.i dont remember protests there.
 
PuterTutor said:
If it was just a B-29 on display, then no. But the Enola Gay is known mostly for it's A-Bomb mission. It is famous for that mission. To put it on display is to glamorize that mission.
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The X-1 is known for breaking the sound barrier (it's most famous mission), but that's not the only reason it's displayed. Those people just have too much time on their hands and, aside from the survivor, really have no real say in the matter at all. It's a machine that was invented for war...as are most of the planes in the Smithsonian. :shrug: If they want to get upset about something, then they should be upset that we have wars period, not how they are won or lost. That decision was made, and, at the time, it was thought to be a sound decision. Perhaps a trip to Pearl Harbor to look at the Arizona will make them feel better...
 
Displaying a B-29 is one thing...To display the Enola gay is another. You can't display that aircraft and not expect ambivalence...Its history is forever a part of it. A mannlicher carcano rifle is just a rifle. But if the serial number tells you that it was sold to Alex Hiedel, it is much more than that. That doesn't mean i think the Enola Gay shouldn't be displayed. Rather, i think it should always be on display. And that display should cause us to ponder all of those ambivolent thoughts, including both the pride and the shame.
 
Still, your political beliefs on the subject are not an excuse for vandalism. Gato, regardless of the interest in the machinery or the history, if you display the Enola Gay pretty much everyone is going to equate it with the atomic bomb. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Still no excuse for vandalism regardless of your opinion on the act. Quick, anyone but Gato, name the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki.
 
nah learnt it in history class, in cegep, good teacher, most don't know

BTW I don't agree with HOW they protested, but I understand why they did.
 
paul_valaru said:
nah learnt it in history class, in cegep, good teacher, most don't know

BTW I don't agree with HOW they protested, but I understand why they did.
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And they had a right to protest, not necessarily a right to be assholes though.
 
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