The Enola Gay is on display as a historical artifact, not as a boast. Bock's Car, the plane that dropped the Nagasaki bomb, is on display at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, along with other historic aircraft -- US, British, Russian, German and others. I've visited WPAFB, but I haven't been to the Dulles exhibit so I don't know what's there.

I did see the Enola Gay when it was being restored at the Silver Hill facility. Again, other historic airplanes and spacecraft were there -- craft from a number of countries, not just the US.

As for dropping nuclear bombs, I can only say as I've said before, right or wrong (and I mean morally, not militarily or historically or ethically or any other way), it brought my father home from the South Pacific to spend Christmas, 1945 with my mother and me -- the first of the five he'd spend with his wife and children before dying in a construction accident. It brought home my Uncles Jack, Gene, Bob, and Earl. I think at the time that's all they or their families cared about.

As for the situation in Japan, I understand that the Japanese military who were in power had sent out feelers for a conditional surrender which were rejected by Moscow, London, and Washington. An unconditional surrender had been demanded, as was demanded of Germany and Italy. The military assured the Emperor that all was well. The people of Japan were actually being trained to defend the country with broomsticks and similar weapons (there are films of this training), the people had been told that the invaders would rape the children and eat the old people, etc. etc. (again, there are records of this), and that they should die for the Emperor. AFTER the bombings, Hirohito put a stop to the war by telling the military to give it up, to surrender unconditionally and save his people.

The destructive force of the fission bomb was known:

"On the morning of July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., a group of scientists, army officials, and famous personalities - including British ambassador Lord Halifax and Harvard president Dr. James B. Conant - witnessed the detonation of "Fat Man," a thirteen-pound plutonium bomb, which caused a blaze of light and heat more brilliant than the rising sun. The eighteen-kiloton explosion shattered windows 120 miles from Trinity and rumbled as far as 250 miles away. The intense heat of the blast melted the surrounding sand into a green, glassy, radioactive substance dubbed "Trinitite," which litters the site to this day."

The explosion was conservatively estimated to have been in the 10 KT range. Documents released after Trinity demonstrated that considerable radiation had indeed been released. It was noted, for instance, that the observers were exposed to as much as 8 roentgens, and the area even today shows radiation 10 times that of the surrounding area.