On January 30, the Smithsonian Institution announced that, beginning in May, the front 56 feet of the Enola Gay's fuselage will be displayed alone in the Air and Space Museum, accompanied only by a video of recollections from its flight crew. For many others, the Enola Gay is the symbol of the unleashing of a terrifying, sinister, world-changing force the start of the nuclear age. The bomb, they feel, was the only alternative to a bloody, massive invasion of Japan. When is a fuselage not just a fuselage? To many World War II veterans, the Enola Gay-the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima-is an icon of their deliverance.
