Truman's new look costs $22.5 million

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Beginning Saturday, visitors to the Truman Library will experience sights, sounds and interactive activities unlike anything ever seen at the museum.

The new exhibit, titled "Harry S. Truman: The Presidential Years," is designed to illuminate the pressures that Truman faced when making momentous decisions, such as dropping atomic bombs on Japan or recognizing Israel.

"Here is a president who had to make a lot of difficult decisions," said Michael Devine, the museum's new director. "This is an imaginative and ambitious exhibit that shows that we are still debating those decisions and living with the consequences of them."

The 11,000-square-foot permanent exhibit is part of a larger $22.5 million renovation designed to transform the institution, which opened in 1957.

Ongoing installation

The exhibit will continue to be installed after Saturday, and visitor comments will be considered until the library's "grand rededication" Dec. 9.

The exhibit makes it clear that many people disagreed with Truman's decisions. A display dedicated to Truman's 1945 decision to use the atomic bomb is an example.

Visitors confront four video monitors simultaneously detailing the race to produce the bomb, the firebombings of Japanese cities in 1945, the military campaigns that same year on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the ongoing American propaganda campaign against the Japanese.

If it seems overwhelming, it's probably pretty close to what Truman was feeling at the time.

Theaters of decision

The exhibits also include two small "decision theaters."

In the first, visitors are briefed on two choices made by Truman in 1948: recognizing Israel and the desegregation of the armed forces. Visitors then are asked to select which one of four factors may have mattered most in Truman's decisions -- personal belief, advice from others, public opinion or the country's long-term interest.

The second "decision theater," keyed to Truman's directive ordering federal employees to take loyalty oaths, will simulate the intimidation of the McCarthy era.