Hospitalized a dozen times for his injuries, he has scars from shattered glass.
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Kouichi Yasui, a Hiroshima survivor, came from Japan to view the bomber that blew apart his world as he worked inside an Army barracks. After World War II ended, Paul Tibbets flew the Enola Gay to Roswell. The B-29 (also called Superfortress) was a four-engine heavy bomber that was built by Boeing. The war between the Smithsonian and the Air Force had its roots back in 1949. The aircraft was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The Enola Gay will remain on display indefinitely. Enola Gay, the B-29bomber that was used by the United States on August 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive device had been used on an enemy target. The Enola Gay will be the most popular exhibit since the museum's Star Trek display, which attracted more than 800,000 visitors in 11 months, Umansky said. "What I feel is important is how the American people feel about it," Smithsonian spokesman David Umansky said. Veterans, for example, complained that the museum displayed a misrepresented version. After an avalanche of criticism and opposition, Smithsonian officials decided to create a less subjective exhibit that would allow visitors to draw their own conclusions. A controversy erupted, however, over the exhibits historical authenticity. Originally, the Smithsonian planned to offer a combination of history and analysis about the bombing. "They had their heroes that bombed Pearl Harbor, and I don't begrudge their war heroes." He said he didn't find the Japanese perspective to be relevant in an American history event. Jim Short, a visitor from Visalia, Calif., disagreed. "There's not enough information about the victims of Hiroshima." One Japanese tourist, Hiroshi Yura, said that the exhibit was impressive but that it should have included more details about the history surrounding the bombing itself.
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Despite the controversy, the display proved popular with visitors who lined up to see the exhibit, which is built around parts of the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 50 years ago.