2020 marked a number of 75th anniversaries for World War II — the 75th anniversary of VE Day on May 8; the 75th anniversary of the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropping the first atomic bomb used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6; and the 75th anniversary of VJ Day and the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on September 2. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum planned to commemorate these anniversaries with a series of in-person programs, most notably a fly-in of World War II aircraft on May 9, following the Arsenal of Democracy flyover of Washington, DC, the day before. 

With in-person commemorations of these important anniversaries no longer possible, the Museum doubled up on its efforts to commemorate the end of World War II digitally.

Digital Content

The backbone of the Museum’s digital content commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II was a blog series featuring 40 new stories about World War II, ranging from profiles of lesser-known pilots to examinations of the different types of aviation involved in the war effort to commemorations of key moments leading to Allied victory. The blogs were posted on the Museum website and shared through Smithsonian Magazine’s Voices platform, Google Arts & Culture (see more below), social media, and newsletters. 

Blogs in the “75th Anniversary of World War II” series have been viewed over 150,000 times. The five top-performing blogs were: 

The Museum also shared 50 newly digitized color images from World War II, providing a sense of immediacy for younger generations for whom the war is often a vague and distant event from the last century. The photos came from the National Air and Space Museum Archives collection, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Library of Congress, and those released are only a selection of the thousands being digitized by the Museum. The Flickr album containing the images received 9,500 views and the Facebook album and the photos within it received 8,045 reactions, 343 comments, and 1,880 shares. 

In September 2020, to commemorate the official end of World War II, the National Air and Space Museum and Google Arts & Culture launched “World War Two: The Flying Frontier,” a digital project featuring over 40 curated online “exhibits” about aircraft, aviators, and important moments of World War II; stunning photography of museum artifacts; 3D panoramas of World War II aircraft in the Museum’s collection; and videos about World War II. The page also featured content from other Smithsonian museums, including the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Museum of the American Indian. “World War Two: The Flying Frontier” can be accessed on Google Arts & Culture.

In May 2020, the Museum published a VE Day Edition of its monthly What’s Up e-newsletter, which spotlighted iconic World War II aircraft and aviators; and in September 2020, the Museum sent a World War II themed issue of its Digital Discoveries e-newsletter.

Digital Programming

Two episodes of the Museum’s educational webcast for middle school students, STEM in 30, focused on World War II, each followed by an interactive live chat:

Watch a clip: 

The Museum’s September Soar Together @ Air and Space virtual family day was World War II-themed, celebrating the diverse groups and people who helped end the global conflict.

In September 2020, the Museum’s National and Space Society hosted its annual Flight Jacket Night lecture as a virtual program with Brigadier General Charles McGee, who served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II. The program featured McGee in conversation with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, and a Q&A facilitated by Ellen Stofan, the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Museum. An archived version of the program can be watched any time.

Museum experts also joined virtual programs about World War II held by other organizations. Curator of U.S. naval aviation Laurence Burke spoke at the National Park Service’s virtual event remembering Pearl Harbor in December 2020 and the Museum’s Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History David Winkler spoke about the building of the World War II Memorial at a National Archives event in November 2020.