|
|
Article: A museum in crisis: the Smithsonian heads into rough times after the Enola Gay debacle. (Smithsonian Institution; Enola Gay, the World War II airplane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- February 13, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The New York taxi driver, who talked as if he had once been a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, turned to his passenger as the cab pulled up at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. "Hey, this is part of the Smithsonian, isn't it?" he said. "Have you heard what those bastards are doing to the Enola Gay?"
His passenger had indeed. He was Michael Heyman, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. And he had just met yet another World War II veteran furious over the Smithsonian's plans to display the Enola Gay--the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 50 years ago--in an exhibit that made the Japanese out to be innocent victims of an unnecessary act ...