Rebs bomb Hiroshima!
Ever curious regarding the weirder aspects of reenacting, I once asked this question: "Does anyone have any first-hand information about a Hiroshima reenactment that once took place with a 500 pound sack of flour dropped from a bomber? This was told to me but I've never found any independent verification (which means "Urban Legend" to me)." I got a reply from one "KnightFlyr" at America Online, reproduced below. I might have suspected Rebs were behind it. - Jonah
"The event you are talking about was a Confederate Air Force Air Show in Harlingen, Germany a few years back. The show was ended with the B29 "Fifi" simulating the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima by the Enola Gay. (The plane was flown by Gen. Paul Tibbets, the same pilot who flew the mission to Hiroshima.) It included a small ground charge which resulted in a small mushroom cloud. This caused an international incident, bringing diplomatic protests from Japan. Our liberal politicians and revisionist historians proceeded to kiss Japan's derriere with formal apologies while chastising and condemning the Confederate Air Force as a war-mongering extremist group. Neither the Japanese or the revisionist liberals mentioned the reenacted bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Confederate Air Force during the air show. (Funny how that was overlooked!) Since that time, bowing to pressure, the CAF does not do the bombing of Hiroshima anymore."
2013 UPDATE: I have since discovered that this event was held in Harlingen, Texas (not Germany), on October 10, 1976. Link here with video. From the page: "Confederate Air Force showing historical aircraft at an air show (Airsho '76) in Harlingen Texas. United States fighter planes of World War II in show. B-17 and B-24 bomber planes in flight. Formation of three B-25 planes. Lead B-25 (tan) is the 'Laden Maiden,' one of many aircraft owned by John Stokes and flown down from San Marcos, Texas, to support Airsho '76. Formation consisting of F4U Corsair and F6F Hellcat in flight. B-29 Superfortress in flight piloted by Paul Tibbets drops a simulated atomic bomb complete with mushroom cloud. Tibbets was the pilot of the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan. Following this air show, the U.S. government apologized to Japan for the re-enacted bombing. P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt taxiing. B-17 and B-24 bomber planes landing and taxiing, including 'Texas Rangers' and 'Diamond Lil,' the latter carrying a full 'crew' looking out as the aircraft taxis past."
Has this issue been put to rest? Not at all! You'd think that reenactors, of all people, would learn from the past - but no. From the Associated Press, 18 April 2013:
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- A popular Ohio air show has canceled a re-enactment of a World War II atomic bomb attack on Japan after an online petition was posted in protest.
Dayton Air Show executive director Terry Grevious says the June 22-23 airshow at Dayton International Airport will keep a planned pyrotechnic show but not as an event meant to re-enact the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima.
The Dayton Daily News reports that art curator Gabriela Pickett started the online petition to object to the "glamorization of destruction."
Grevious said the re-enactment was meant to mark an historic occurrence credited with ending the war and saving many lives that would have been lost had it continued. The air show has done pyrotechnic explosions but has never labeled it an atomic bomb display.
