My thanks to Dr. Rups for a superb response on what I know too well
(after dozens of heated debates across my kitchen table) is a deeply-
felt subject.  As far as I know, *none* of the many versions of the
"Last Act" script have been made public.  For most of us, the debate
on this gallery has been based on the few quotes published in various
articles in the "Post" and other newspapers.
 
Context is everything:  for example, the widely quoted (and widely
vilified) description of young, patriotic Kamikaze pilots was an
excerpt from a Japanese pilot's diary.  As an insight about how the
Japanese saw themselves in the conflict, it is invaluable.  As a
quoted representation of how "the Smithsonian" views the end of World
War II, it is damnably misleading.  I suspect that one of the best
signs that the present script presents a reasonably balanced view
of the events and issues is that we now have both the veterans and
the anti-war groups attacking us.  But all of us will have to wait
until the gallery opens to decide for ourselves.
 
Anyone who is fond of old popular culture (as both Dr. Rups and I
are) is aware that many of the products of the war years cannot be
viewed now without profound embarrassment.  Wars breed popular
hysteria.  That's part of the nature of the beastly things.  I
personally think that Superman "Japoteurs" cartoons are as important
to understanding what it was like to live in wartime America as
academic meditations on Truman's alternatives.  And understanding
the culture of Japan at the time is necessary for any comprehension
of why they, and we, made the choices that were made.
 
Many of the critics of the "Last Act" exhibit seem to feel that to
present a viewpoint is to espouse it -- to show the horrors of
Ground Zero is to portray those there as innocent victims; to tell
what Japanese soldiers felt is to say that what they felt is right.
And there are those who seem to feel that if an action is justified,
it cannot simultaneously be horrible, both as a moral dilemma and
to those who must suffer the consequences.  Many of our critics seem
to want life to be ... simple, or at least morally unambiguous.
 
Or perhaps they fear that our visitors are not able to sort facts
out for themselves and form their own opinions.  I, personally,
would rather have all sides of history presented -- the heroic
actions, the muddled compromises, the ringing truths, the damned
lies, Truman's speech and the "Japoteurs" and all endless trivial
details that only turn into history from a distance.  It's the
intersection of all these things, not any one of them, that
holds the truth.
 
My father recently remarked, with some astonishment, that what
he remembered most of being in the war was how long it all seemed to
take, and how utterly uneventful it had seemed at any given moment.
If I were to design a war exhibit, I think this is the perspective
from which I would approach it.
 
These are, of course, my own opinions
despite my affiliation:
 
       +------------------------------+------------------------+
       |  Barbara Weitbrecht          |  [log in to unmask]  |
       |  National Air & Space Museum |  [log in to unmask]       |
       |  Smithsonian Institution     |  (202) 357-4162        |
       +------------------------------+------------------------+