But in fact, once the expediency and ethics of dropping the atomic bombs became entangled in the larger question of who owns history and retains memory, and as the bitter charges by veterans and politicians against scholars and curators deemed unpatriotic made frontpage news, both the large crowds on the mall and the ongoing recriminations about what has happened to the stories we tell about ourselves were guaranteed. World War 11 seemed to have been put to rest already by Ronald Reagan�s laying of a wreath at Bitburg a decade earlier. This clash between American history and American memory was taken u p by the media to an extent that few predicted. These events, which stand, if not securely, in the American imagination as one of our finest hours, seemed in danger in the summer of 1995 of being turned into a rout of our claims to moral as well as military certitude. intent on revising our understanding of events half a century ago. Positions 5:3 0 1997 by Duke University Press. The Enola Gay on Display: Hiroshima and American Memory The Enola Gay on Display: Hiroshima and American Memory
