This post on Reddit, although old, brought back memories for me. When I lived in Columbus Ohio, I saw this plane at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base Museum in Dayton Ohio. I have never forgotten how small Bockscar was in relation to the destruction it caused. Bockscar is a B-29 Superfortress and dropped the Fat Man bomb in Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
On the other side of the plane is a replica of the bomb.
The other plane, Enola Gay, is also a B-29 Superfortress and dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima three days earlier, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s song, Enola Gay is about the decision to use the bomb.
For me, if someone says 1937, I automatically think pre-WWII. If they say 1946 I place it as post-WWII. I am not sure anyone born after 2000 does that. Similarly, on 9/11 last year, a shop celebrated by having drinks named Tower A and Tower B. After a huge backlash ensued, the proprietor blamed a staff member, saying they were not alive when 9/11 happened so had no idea of the huge feelings about it.
All of this becomes so resonant today. I keep thinking of the observation by Spanish philosopher George Santayana Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it