Controversial "Enola Gay" Exhibit: Interviews Available
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 *
http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
PM Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Controversial "Enola Gay" Exhibit: Interviews Available
SAYURI MIYAZAKI, ujeac@igc.org; PAT ELDER, elder@chesapeake.net,
http://www.enola-gay.org
Miyazaki and Elder will accompany Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb
[Hibakusha] as they deliver signatures on a global petition to the
Smithsonian Museum. The petition states: "The Smithsonian National Air and
Space Museum has announced that it has completely restored the B-29 bomber
Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.... The public
display devotes a great deal to the performance characteristics and the
like of the Enola Gay, but is said to restrict itself to a brief reference
to the dropping of the atomic bomb.... Of the 140,000 people estimated to
have died in Hiroshima within that year, 65 percent were women, children
and elderly people.... Deep wounds and radiation-induced handicaps ...
continue to afflict victims.... We request that you also exhibit
photographs and materials showing the damage inflicted by the atomic bomb
that was dropped from this airplane." The petition will be delivered
following a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington on
Friday, December 12 at 9:00 a.m.
TERUMI TANAKA, HIROTAMI YAMADA, MINORU NISHINO, TAMIKO TOMONAGA [via John
Steinbach], johnsteinbach@starpower.net
Tanaka is the president of HIDANKYO, the national organization of atom bomb
survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yamada, Nishino and Tomonaga are
members of the delegation of atom bomb survivors.
GAR ALPEROVITZ, garalper@ncesa.org,
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/alperovitz
Alperovitz is the author of "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb." He said
today: "The use of the atomic bomb, most experts now believe, was totally
unnecessary. Even people who support the decision for various reasons
acknowledge that almost certainly the Japanese would have surrendered
before the initial invasion planned for November [1945].... As the
criticism [of the bomb] grew, there was an organized, semi-official
response to put it [the criticism] down. The argument was that the bomb was
the least abhorrent choice we had available. The documents available show
that isn't true -- but it was an extraordinarily successful propaganda
effort.... One of the lessons from Hiroshima is how terribly small the
group of people was who made decisions that had incredible world-shaking
implications....[Another] is the way information can be manipulated so that
for 50 years a whole society is taught to believe a myth."
PETER KUZNICK, kuznick@american.edu,
http://www.enola-gay.org/conference.pdf
Kuznick is a professor at the Nuclear Studies Institute at the American
University and an organizer of the upcoming "Hiroshima in the 21st
Century: Will We Repeat the Past?" conference [Saturday, December 13]. He
said today: "We are not opposed to exhibiting the Enola Gay, we welcome any
exhibition that will spur an honest and balanced discussion of the atomic
bombings of 1945 and of current U.S. nuclear policy. Our greatest concern
is that the disturbing issues raised by the atomic bombings in 1945 will
not be addressed in the planned exhibit and that President Truman's use of
atomic weapons will legitimize the Bush administration's current effort to
lower the threshold for future use of nuclear weapons."
PHIL WHEATON, phil.wheaton@juno.com,
http://www.enola-gay.org/action/prayer_service.php
Wheaton, an Episcopal priest, will co-host the inter-faith/secular witness
liturgy, "Remembrance, Repentance and Re-Commitment," honoring [Hibakusha]
nuclear radiation survivors on Sunday, December 14 at 3 p.m., at the New
York Avenue Presbyterian Church, two blocks east of the White House.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167