[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 39 (Thursday, March 2, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                             [[Page E493]]

                SMITHSONIAN SLAPS OUR HEROES IN THE FACE

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                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 2, 1995
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, it is tragic that a museum funded by public 
dollars dare revise our history and distort the facts surrounding the 
use of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 
World War II. While this was an extreme use of force, it was used 
reluctantly against a mischievous and unyielding empire. It is 
certainly appropriate to include this exhibit regardless of the present 
sentiment toward such weapons since it culminated in the end of the war 
and placed the United States at the forefront of the free world.
  Indeed, Mr. Speaker, if the Smithsonian wanted to revise the Enola 
Gay exhibit, they might start by acknowledging this action actually 
saved many American, and even Japanese, lives for that matter. In fact, 
as we paid tribute to the marines who fought the historic battle of Iwo 
Jima this past week, Mr. Harwit and others at the Smithsonian would 
have done well to ask these survivors the likelihood of a Japanese 
surrender without use of these devastating bombs. Then, Mr. Speaker, 
they could ask these heroes if the Japanese would have been likely to 
surrender upon being faced with a massive and superior invasion force.
  As supposed historians, these people need not ask such insulting and 
embarrassing questions, but simply look at the facts. Clearly, the 
Japanese actions at Iwo Jima and other island invasions indicated they 
would not give up until the last of them was killed. Now, I ask the 
learned scholars at the Smithsonian, what kind of toll would have been 
extracted by an invasion of the Japanese mainland? I for one cringe to 
think of the loss of lives such an act would have rendered and would be 
ashamed to face those who gave their lives at places like Iwo Jima. 
After all, Mr. Speaker, these heroes directly enabled the air raids 
which ultimately broke the Japanese will and allowed democracy to 
triumph over imperialism.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to submit an editorial from 
the spring 1995 edition of the Marine Corps League describing the 
insult such irreverent action is to our service people.
                          Smithsonian's Insult

       Fifty years ago this August the United States dropped the 
     atomic bomb that forced Japan to surrender, ending World War 
     II. Fifty-four years ago come December 7, the Japanese made 
     their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that caused the United 
     States to enter World War II. The two events cannot be 
     separated. Without the first event, there could not have been 
     the second. And any historian--or museum--who views it 
     otherwise is either ignorant or deceitful. But when that 
     museum is the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and the 
     historian is its director, Martin Harwit, the ignorance and 
     the deceit are shameful.
       The Smithsonian's planned exhibit of the Enola Gay is so 
     blatantly distorted that it insults every American Marine, 
     Sailor, and Soldier who fought in the Pacific. In World War 
     II Marines did not suffer insults gladly from the enemy. 
     Neither should we do so today from Smithsonian revisionists 
     like Mr. Harwit.
       We join the American Legion and other veterans 
     organizations in condemning the Smithsonian's planned Enola 
     Gay exhibit. We echo the statement by U.S. Representatives 
     Peter Blute, Sam Johnson, and Stephen Buyer that Harwit 
     should be fired. We endorse the Washington Post editorial 
     that calls for the Smithsonian to clean up its mess.
       If it does not, Congress should shut off the millions the 
     Smithsonian gets every year from taxpayers like us. That 
     wouldn't be too high a price to pay for being insulted, would 
     it? After all, we did win the war, didn't we?
                                                     --The Editors
     

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