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1995 Letter From E. D.
Winstead to Ira Michael Heyman, CEO
Smithsonian Institution
About the Enola Gay Exhibit
(See scan of Letter Below.)
Ira Michael Heyman, CEO
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
26 January 1995
Dear Mr. Heyman:
I have been an admirer and to some degree a supporter of the Smithsonian for a number of years, but your position on the Enola Gay exhibit causes me to question the basis for my past support and your motives.
I was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in the Philippine Islands for thirty-three months. Your attempt to portray the Japanese as "innocent victims of our cruel aggression" is obnoxious and insulting. Apparently Mr. Harwit and his staff are ignorant of the history of the war in the Pacific. I recommend that you, Mr. Harwit, and the Board of Regents review the official policy of the Japanese government for the treatment of prisoners of war (slave labor, starvation, and barbarism) as well as the murder of 10,000 prisoners on the march out of Bataan, the starvation at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan, the massacre at Palawan and the death of about 4000 American POWs on the Shinyo Maru, the Arisan Maru, and the Oryoku Maru, better known and more accurately described as the "Hell Ships."
The conditions stated above, while correct and documented, have never even been admitted, much less apologized for, by the Japanese Government. I find it appalling that the Smithsonian could even entertain the idea of sympathy or concern for a people whose character and culture spawned such behavior.
The Enola Gay and its crew brought the war to a successful and rapid conclusion and in the process stopped the continued barbaric treatment of American POWs in Japan; rendered an invasion unnecessary which saved countless American as well as Japanese lives. Their service deserves to be honored rather than to be denigrated by the Smithsonian.
Sincerely,
SIGNED (see scan below)
E. D. Winstead
710 Broad St.
Wilson, NC 27893-3031
(919) 243 2187
Copy to:
Senator Jesse Helms
Senator Lauch Faircloth
Rep. Walter Jones, Jr.
Rep. David Funderburk
Rep. Fred Heineman
Retyped by son Ray L. Winstead from a signed original September 10, 2018.
RLW footnote. Also see Fall 1994 speech http://raywinstead.com/edw/edw1994speech.shtm , e.g.,
"I was scheduled to sail on the Oryoku Maru on 15 December but came down with dysentery and was placed in isolation and taken off the manifest. Otherwise, I could have been a statistic of the Hell ships. As an interesting footnote toward the propensity for rewriting history, the curatorial staff of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum proposed textual and visual thrust for the B-29 Enola Gay display that portrayed the American Veteran as "racist, fighting a war of vengeance" while the "Japanese were defending their unique culture against Western imperialism." The Smithsonian's NASM staff in its zeal to produce a politically correct script came across as misguided and ignorant of history. The factual story of the American POW of the Japanese should be a required study course for the NASM Staff."
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