ABSTRACT
An exhibition on the atomic bombs and the end of World War II was planned for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington in 1995, fifty years after the bombings. The exhibit was to be mounted alongside the restored fuselage of the Enola Gay, but a fierce controversy developed over its content. The draft plan for the exhibit was indeed a brave undertaking, posing a number of questions: Was President Truman’s decision to drop the bomb justified? What were its human consequences? What alternatives, if any, existed for ending the war? And, did the bombs usher in the postwar nuclear arms race?
