After reading all of the "Atomic" and Enola Gay messages, it is ironic that
the museum community is the last to debate the exhibit of "the last act."
The exhibit debate was "prime time" on most of the computer networks last
spring. "The New York Times," as well as "The Wall Street Journal" had numerous
articles about the debate
which had caused a firestorm in the veterans' community through the "Air
Force Magazine." The Air and Space Museum has done extensive historical
research on the end of the war and events that lead to the decision to "drop
the bomb." Having done historical research in that area, you might be
interested to know that as late as July, 1945, Japan was still planning and
building airplanes and subs that were going to blow up the gates of the
Panama Canal and attack American cities. While this seems perhaps outrageous
to people today, the threat was quite real as the Japanese prowled up and
down the West coast almost at will. The Japanese military was halted only
from this idea because they ran out of natural resources - oil -
particularly. The target was changed to bomb a major U.S. base and the sub
was underway when the war ended. The Japanese military wanted to fight to
the end. Some historians have said that the political reality was that the
government had been replaced which was less militarisitc to "sue for peace" for
sometime and there had been secret
negotiations to the end of the war between America and Japan - olive
branches had been offered. The debate about the "bomb" comes really as,
"What would have happened had FDR lived?" There are some historians who
state that FDR was ready to end the war and even restore resource shipments
to Japan. In that case, the bomb would never have been dropped. Truman, on the o
ther hand, some historians write, didn't have much
use for the Japanese. David McCullough's; Truman, interpretation is worth readin
g, as
well. It outlines the decision making process rather well. A historical
perspective covering more than revisionist and post-revisionist history
needs to be encouraged for this debate.
 
Sara W. Connor, certified aviator - history - science teacher, and museum develo
pment director
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PS. I would enlighten more, but grant deadlines are approaching!