The prevailing historical view is that Mr. The issue of the potential casualties is at the heart of the effort by some historians to question President Harry S. The museum will also vastly revise the estimate of how many casualties might have resulted if the bombs had not been used and the United States had invaded Japan instead. The exhibit, which is scheduled to open in May, will also omit items that the critics said dwelt to excess on the horrible effects of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, attacks that ended World War II. The critics said that the discussion did not belong in the exhibit and was part of a politically loaded message that the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan began a dark chapter in human history. The exhibit featuring the B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, will no longer include a long section on the postwar nuclear race that veterans groups and members of Congress had criticized. After months of criticism by veterans groups and members of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution has agreed to make major changes in its planned exhibit of the airplane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
