Yesterday, December 15, was the grand opening of the Smithsonian Institute’s new Air and Space Museum, the second installation of the museum in which they’re showing a good number of planes, mostly military; including the Enola Gay. The display around the Enola Gay is enough to make anyone with a conscience sick - devoid of any information about the bomb and it’s effects which were beyond tragic, devoid of any recognition of the deaths in one day of 140,000 Japanese caused by the airplane’s mission, it is shown as if it is something to be proud of, to coo and whistle over without incurring any remorse or repentance from the American public, without even basic information about the wreckage and ruin this plane brought to Japan in 1945.
So yesterday, on opening day, a hundred or more people went to the museum (adjacent to Dulles Airport) to show their shame and disgust at the lack of proper education and the prideful display of the Enola Gay. Joining in protest were 10 Japanese Hibakusha, along with Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Jonah House, and many of the peace and justice communities and organizations in the D.C. area.
We began by filing into the new building as tourists and gathering around the offensive exhibit at 11:00 in the morning, at which time banners and posters appeared in everyone’s hands, with messages in English and Japanese about Hiroshima and the devastation wrought by the bomb, pictures of children and other citizens suffering horribly from the effects, pictures of the flattened city, and cries of “Never Again.” When Art Laffin began reading a prepared statement about the Enola Gay, police quickly came to take him away from the crowd and tear banners and pictures out of people’s hands. In the midst of the commotion, between the media and the staged die in with singing and chanting and kneeling down around the bodies, a glass bottle of red paint was thrown from above. The bottle hit the plane, fell to the floor and shattered, splattering its blood-like contents all over the ground. We learned later that Tom Siemer was the actor of this theatrical addition. He was arrested and taken by the police to Fairfax County Jail. As Tom emerged from the police car at the station, he suffered a massive heart attack. He was taken immediately to Fairfax Hospital where he underwent surgery. He will face charges after he heals; police believe it will be federal destruction of property (They allege that he did $8,000 worth of damage to the plane.) Thank you, Tom! We ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
After about 20 minutes of speaking, chanting, and dying-in, the police warned us that we had to leave. We all stood up and filed slowly out, holding hands in an impressively long and powerful line, singing all the way up the stairs, down the hall, and out the door. When we arrived outside to the front of the building, the whole group gathered in a circle, a bit off to the side where we were pushed to by the police, holding banners and wearing “No More Hiroshima’s” signs on our jackets, to listen to the Hibakusha speak. Their words and stories were tragic, hopeful, and much appreciated.
It was a strong and moving presence that lasted more than an hour, while representatives from all the groups present listened to each other and spoke a word or two about why they were there. Sarah Rose Clune handed leaflets to passers by and folks going into the museum who were interested in what was happening, or in learning more about the history or controversy surrounding the Enola Gay’s instrumentation in the ending of the Second World War.
Many thanks go out to everyone who came to make the protest the impressive crowd that it was. We ask everyone to remember Hiroshima, and re-commit every moment to the end the horror and destruction experienced there, never to be forgotten.
Jonah House
Please also see:
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; http://www.nasm.si.edu/
National Air and Space Museum Completes Restoration of Enola Gay at Udvar-Hazy Center, the Museum's New Companion Facility;
http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/pa/nasmnews/pr/081803.htm
'we've got the cards': 56 years after hiroshima;
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1461/pg1/
A Letter to The Boston Globe;
http://www.f5.dion.ne.jp/~t-izumi/bostonletter.htm
World War II;
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~pppf6/Ayumi/JapaneseHistory/SyowaPeriod/WorldWarII.html
VA Programs for Veterans Exposed to Radiation;
http://www.appc1.va.gov/pressrel/radfs02.htm
HIROSHIMA: Random Ramblings;
http://www.doug-long.com/rambling.htm
Effects of Radioactivity;
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/edstudyguides/rad-effects.html
Hiroshima Archive;
http://www.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/gallery.html
PHOTO NARA U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:
http://www.archives.gov/
Courtesy of FREE STOCK PHOTOS: http://free-stock-photos.com/
So yesterday, on opening day, a hundred or more people went to the museum (adjacent to Dulles Airport) to show their shame and disgust at the lack of proper education and the prideful display of the Enola Gay. Joining in protest were 10 Japanese Hibakusha, along with Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Jonah House, and many of the peace and justice communities and organizations in the D.C. area.
We began by filing into the new building as tourists and gathering around the offensive exhibit at 11:00 in the morning, at which time banners and posters appeared in everyone’s hands, with messages in English and Japanese about Hiroshima and the devastation wrought by the bomb, pictures of children and other citizens suffering horribly from the effects, pictures of the flattened city, and cries of “Never Again.” When Art Laffin began reading a prepared statement about the Enola Gay, police quickly came to take him away from the crowd and tear banners and pictures out of people’s hands. In the midst of the commotion, between the media and the staged die in with singing and chanting and kneeling down around the bodies, a glass bottle of red paint was thrown from above. The bottle hit the plane, fell to the floor and shattered, splattering its blood-like contents all over the ground. We learned later that Tom Siemer was the actor of this theatrical addition. He was arrested and taken by the police to Fairfax County Jail. As Tom emerged from the police car at the station, he suffered a massive heart attack. He was taken immediately to Fairfax Hospital where he underwent surgery. He will face charges after he heals; police believe it will be federal destruction of property (They allege that he did $8,000 worth of damage to the plane.) Thank you, Tom! We ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
After about 20 minutes of speaking, chanting, and dying-in, the police warned us that we had to leave. We all stood up and filed slowly out, holding hands in an impressively long and powerful line, singing all the way up the stairs, down the hall, and out the door. When we arrived outside to the front of the building, the whole group gathered in a circle, a bit off to the side where we were pushed to by the police, holding banners and wearing “No More Hiroshima’s” signs on our jackets, to listen to the Hibakusha speak. Their words and stories were tragic, hopeful, and much appreciated.
It was a strong and moving presence that lasted more than an hour, while representatives from all the groups present listened to each other and spoke a word or two about why they were there. Sarah Rose Clune handed leaflets to passers by and folks going into the museum who were interested in what was happening, or in learning more about the history or controversy surrounding the Enola Gay’s instrumentation in the ending of the Second World War.
Many thanks go out to everyone who came to make the protest the impressive crowd that it was. We ask everyone to remember Hiroshima, and re-commit every moment to the end the horror and destruction experienced there, never to be forgotten.
Jonah House
Please also see:
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; http://www.nasm.si.edu/
National Air and Space Museum Completes Restoration of Enola Gay at Udvar-Hazy Center, the Museum's New Companion Facility;
http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/pa/nasmnews/pr/081803.htm
'we've got the cards': 56 years after hiroshima;
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1461/pg1/
A Letter to The Boston Globe;
http://www.f5.dion.ne.jp/~t-izumi/bostonletter.htm
World War II;
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~pppf6/Ayumi/JapaneseHistory/SyowaPeriod/WorldWarII.html
VA Programs for Veterans Exposed to Radiation;
http://www.appc1.va.gov/pressrel/radfs02.htm
HIROSHIMA: Random Ramblings;
http://www.doug-long.com/rambling.htm
Effects of Radioactivity;
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/edstudyguides/rad-effects.html
Hiroshima Archive;
http://www.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/gallery.html
PHOTO NARA U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:
http://www.archives.gov/
Courtesy of FREE STOCK PHOTOS: http://free-stock-photos.com/