Six survivors and around 50 peace activists held up pictures of hideously burned victims among the tens of thousands killed or injured by the blast, as the restored and shiny silver Boeing B-29 Superfortress loomed overhead.

The Enola Gay was put on display for the first time in one piece on opening day for a vast new annex to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which also includes a just retired French Concorde and space shuttle prototype.

One protestor threw a bag of paint at the aircraft, and was hauled away by police, though activists could not identify the man.

It was not clear if the Enola Gay was damaged.

The vigil stirred anger among some visitors to the museum, just under the flightpath of Dulles international airport outside Washington.

"Remember Pearl Harbor" "Go home" "What about the Nanjing massacre?" several men shouted in references to the imperial Japanese army, as several scuffles broke out with activists.

Other men, including several US war veterans, took part in animated arguments which peace activists. Several young Japanese visitors to the museum were overcome by emotion and in tears.

"This is the second time I have seen the Enola Gay," said Hiroshima survivor Minoru Nishino, 71, who was two kilometres (miles) from the epicentre of the blast, and still bears scars from his burns.

"The first time was on August 6, 1945, when I saw it flying high in the sky.

"When I saw the Enola Gay today, I was overcome by anger."

Another survivor, Tamiko Tomonaga, 74, said she had come to see the plane in memory of all those who died in the twin atom bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in the closing days of World War II.

Survivors are disappointed the plane is being displayed with no reference to casualty figures at Hiroshima, which some estimates say reach 230,000 people, when those who died in later years of radiation poisoning are included.

"We would not mind the plane going on display if they showed the tragedy they caused" Tomonaga, who was a Red Cross nurse at the time of the bombing said.

The Enola Gay bears a label describing it as the "most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II."

The text mentions the technological prowess of the aircraft and how it "found its niche on the other side of the globe."

"On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan."

As survivors and activists mounted their protest, some visitors to the museum reacted with anger, reflecting raw feelings left over the war, nearly 60 years after the United States and Japan made peace.

"They (Japan) started the war by bombing our servicemen in Pearl Harbor, they should go and stand on the deck of the Arizona," said one man who refused to give his name, referring to a US ship sunk in the raid, now a memorial.

Joe Lassals, in tears but unwilling to say why he was moved to come here, said, "I am thinking of all the American soldiers who were killed -- why don't they remember them?"

The museum's director, retired general John Dailey, has resisted groups who want the death toll from the Hiroshima bombings included.

"We don't do it for other airplanes," he told AFP. "From a consistency standpoint, we focus on the technical aspects."

The museum says its stance is consistent with the mission entrusted to it by US Congress, which is to display and preserve historic and technologically significant air and space craft.

WAR.WIRE