In his view, the National Air and Space Museum erred by trying to present a slanted account of the end of World War II that cast the Japanese as victims of American aggression.
Not so, says John Correll, editor of Air Force Magazine and arguably the person most responsible for stirring opposition to the museum's planned exhibition on the Enola Gay. As far as they were concerned, there was a gospel truth: Dropping the bomb prevented the invasion of Japan and ended the war. The fact that there had been 30 years of historiographic debate and development…was irrelevant…. 'They feel you must obviously be an anti-American evil person even to debate the legitimacy of dropping the bomb….
'A lot of people in this country don't want the decision to drop the bomb debated,' he said.
WASHINGTON – Sitting in his book-lined office at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Michael Neufeld talks bitterly about his role as the much-maligned curator of the most infamous museum exhibition never mounted.
