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By October, the number of depictions of human suffering was down to 20, according to the association. A January script had 49 photographs of what the Air Force Association calls "human suffering" after the bombing. Nitty-gritty changes took place, as well. That passage was removed from later drafts. It also says that the passage describing the war as an act of vengeance was a mistake. The Smithsonian acknowledges its biggest mistake is that the first script began its time line in 1945. What was once titled "The Crossroads: the End of World War II, The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War" would be called "The Last Act: the Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II." In the year since the early script became public, the museum revised the document four times, renamed the exhibit, doubled the space to accommodate explanations of Japan's aggression leading up to World War II and eliminated many photographs of Japanese victims of the bombings. It was written by museum curators who are historians, but not World War II veterans. The attention has focussed on the exhibit script, 559-pages long in its first version, that details the exhibits, the layout of the museum and the text that would accompany the displays. The fuselage of the plane itself will be shown in the same place that displays the Kitty Hawk and other famous machines of aviation history. The Enola Gay exhibit is planned for the Air and Space Museum, easily the most popular of the 15 museums in the Smithsonian complex. The truth of the matter is, though, that the Smithsonian has been backtracking for months under pressure by Congress, the American Legion, the Air Force Association and some 2,000 angry letter-writers. Michael Bilirakis of Palm Harbor.īilirakis joined 80 colleagues in sending a letter seeking the resignation of the Air and Space Museum director, Michael Harwit, because of his "continuing defiance and disregard for needed improvements to the exhibit." "Those brave men and women who laid down their lives for our country should be honored, not sacrificed at the altar of political correctness," said Rep. 7, 1941, air and naval forces of Japan attacked the United States without provocation."
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"No politically correct, revisionist historian can change the fact that on Dec. "We are particularly concerned that the exhibit portrays the Japanese as victims, fighting to preserve their culture, while characterizing American motivations as vengeful and racist," complained Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole and his colleague John Warner of Virginia. In the dispute over the Enola Gay, though, the clout of the 3.1-million member American Legion and other veterans groups fuels the political rhetoric. The controversy comes as Gingrich and other Republicans are questioning the influence of elites in the media, Public Broadcasting, the arts and other entities that deal with the public or receive taxpayer money. The betting among some Capitol Hill leaders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is that the regents will significantly scale back the presentation to focus simply on the Enola Gay. On Monday, the Smithsonian Board of Regents will meet to decide whether to go ahead with opening of the exhibit in May. For most Japanese, it was a war to defend their unique culture against Western imperialism." "For most Americans," the early Smithsonian script said, "this war was fundamentally different from the one waged against Germany and Italy _ it was a war of vengeance.