Martin Harwitt resigned as director of the Smithsonian Institution in May
1995 after a 10-year struggle to restore and show the Enola Gay at the museum.
It was the fiercest dispute in the museum’s history, and involved Second World
War veterans, the US Senate and the media. Initially, veterans favoured the
restoration of the bomber and its display. But the museum’s desire to put the
nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki into context raised the veterans’
ire—they favoured a “proud display”, rather than one which also carried
views from Japan and aired social and moral issues about nuclear weapons. Hear
it all from the horse’s mouth in Harwitt’s An Exhibit Denied (Copernicus, New
York, $27.50, ISBN 0 387 94797 3).
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features

Technology
Robots are about to overtake armed soldiers as the deciders of war
News

Humans
Iron Age Britons may have removed the brains of the dead
News

Life
Frozen squirrel scat preserves ancient DNA from hundreds of species
News

Environment
The last-ditch plan to save coral reefs from utter destruction
Features
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles
1
Why we should all take quantum physics extremely personally
2
Understanding anorexia’s grip on the brain could unlock new therapies
3
Robots are about to overtake armed soldiers as the deciders of war
4
The last-ditch plan to save coral reefs from utter destruction
5
Why you need to future-proof your brain in middle age and how to start
6
Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact site stayed hot for millions of years
7
Wildlife thrives in solar farm built on restored peatland
8
What really happened when ancient humans migrated out of Africa
9
Iron Age Britons may have removed the brains of the dead
10
How Ukraine became a drone factory and invented the future of war