History matters, and historical truth matters most. What Americans think about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has consequences for the relationships between the U.S. and Japanese governments as well as the American and Japanese people. For this reason, President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima was a historic event that will reverberate in both Tokyo and Washington long after he leaves office. It was a transformative legacy visit.
Two decades and a year have passed since the Enola Gay exhibit fiasco. In 1995 the United States Air and Space Museum planned to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, along with documents that led to that attack, some of which challenged its necessity.
But the plans to engage the public in a serious historical dialogue on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II precipitated a hysterical right-wing reaction. A bruising political battle ensued that eventually saw The American Legion and the Air Force Association, supported by congressional allies, lead a Soviet-style censorship of the exhibit. The result was a national embarrassment, and a distorted explanation of the atomic bombings for the nearly 4 million American and foreign visitors who passed through the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum.