However, the use of the bomb led to the immediate surrender of Japan and made unnecessary the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. A placard crisply informs visitors that the Enola Gay's bomb, ''and the one dropped on Nagasaki three days later, destroyed much of the two cities and caused many tens of thousands of deaths. Above is her gleaming tail fin, freshly painted with a circled letter ''R,'' as a label explains, ''to deceive the Japanese.'' A section on bomber nose art shows us the lighter side of the war another lists the latest technology - remote gun sights, variable-pitch propellers, Fowler flaps.
Nearby, almost life-size cutouts of the bomber's crew grin boyishly for the camera. For the past two years, the main display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington has been an exhibition called simply ''Enola Gay.'' Towering over the exhibition's two galleries are the polished fuselage, flight deck and bomb bay of the enormousī-29 itself, with the casing of an atomic bomb, just released, standing directly below.
