3 Arrested After Protest at Smithsonian Enola Gay Exhibit
Three people were arrested Sunday at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum after pouring ashes and human blood on the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan.
The afternoon incident briefly closed a controversial exhibit of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, on Hiroshima. Park police said that charges had not yet been filed and that the identities of those detained had not been confirmed.
Witnesses in the exhibit at the time of the incident said about 15 people started screaming “We repent! We regret!” before the blood and ashes were used.
Twenty activists were arrested when the exhibit opened Wednesday after they unfurled banners and dropped anti-bomb pamphlets onto visitors.
The exhibit caused controversy even before its opening, and it cost museum director Martin Harwit his job. U.S. veterans groups complained that the original plan focused too much on the damage and deaths caused by the bomb. Anti-bomb groups claimed the exhibit had been too forgiving of the U.S. role.
A scaled-back display focuses on the aircraft and crew, saying little about the consequences of atomic weaponry.
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