War Memorials (May 2011)

Before our trip to DC last May I had never seen the World War II memorial before.  When I last visited DC the Korean War memorial had just opened--I remember because I collected postcards back then (instead of taking pictures) and there were none that I could find of the memorial, it was that new.  My parents subsequently visited DC without me (when I was in college I think), and they got to see the memorial.  WWII has long been the war that I've enjoyed studying the most, so I was quite eager to see the memorial in person.

The memorial is visible from a ways off as it commands prime real estate right in the middle of the Mall.  But WWII was a war that was never memorialized in DC (while Vietnam and Korea both were and the Civil War has memorials all over the Eastern US) and was a pretty massive event in our nation's history.

You can view several National Mall maps at this site (including the one the above image came from).

Each side of the memorial commemorates one of the main theaters of the war.  The first one we came to was the Pacific.  I was impressed by the architectural styles used in the memorial.  I thought that they were quite appropriate.

Around the edge of the memorial are pillars that represent each state and territory that was involved in the war effort.

I took a picture of the Kentucky plinth, and I thought that I'd captured one of the Virginia one also--but I cannot find the pictures now.  Perhaps they were taken on my iPhone, but if this was the case it would take a bit of work to uncover them.  I am woefully behind in getting my pictures organized in one place, let alone chronologically organized.

The drains were even themed along with the rest of the memorial.  Something about the stars (perhaps remembering designs from WWII) seems quite patriotic.

Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleagues delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu...

~President Franklin D. Roosevelt, To the Congress of the United States, December 8, 1941 

You can read the rest of the speech on the US Navy's website. 

 I had memorized the opening line of that speak years ago (likely in high school), but I have to admit that I haven't read the rest of it in quite some time (if ever).  Between the two pictures below you can see much of the central area of the memorial (I do miss my old camera's panoramic feature).  The Pacific is on the left and the Atlantic on the right.

 The central area is dominated by a series of fountains, which look quite beautiful.

I can only hope that people are reading some of the signs.  I'm sure that we have gotten used to people throwing coins into artificial bodies of water, but it is nice to see every now and then if people can respect places and not pollute them with coins that have to be cleaned up periodically.  I didn't look at the water too closely, but I don't recall seeing any coins in it.  I also didn't see any wading, but it wasn't exactly a warm summer day where people would be tempted to do this sort of thing.

I think this is a very interesting quote from General Marshall.  I don't think I've ever read it before.

One side of the memorial featured a series of stars and thanks to the NPS website I remember what they stand for:

The Freedom Wall is comprised of 4,048 gold stars. Each gold star represents one hundred American service personnel who died or remain missing in the war. The 405,399 American dead and missing from the Second World War are second only to the loss of more than 620,000 Americans during our Civil War.

 Quite a few tourists were in evidence throughout the memorial that day.  At one point we even saw buses of veterans driven up.  I guess for this war, the oldest of the wars memorialized on the Mall it makes sense since the veterans are some of the oldest veterans (since I remember reading that the last WWI vet died recently).

After leaving the WWII memorial we soon came to the Korean War memorial.  It was also quite crowded, but I managed to take a few shots.  I think that the last time I was there we came up to it near to sunset, and it was quite dramatic with lights shining on the figures.

“Freedom is not free.” Here, one finds the expression of American gratitude to those who restored freedom to South Korea. Nineteen stainless steel sculptures stand silently under the watchful eye of a sea of faces upon a granite wall—reminders of the human cost of defending freedom. These elements all bear witness to the patriotism, devotion to duty, and courage of Korean War veterans.

The rich greens of the trees and other vegetation really made this area pop with color--the various colors of tourist clothing didn't hurt either, ;-).

In the background you can see the black wall that is also part of the memorial.  It contains many etched pictures (including a dog and a helicopter) of actual participants in the war.

I think the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is likely the best known war memorial on the National Mall.  Of course it is also the oldest one and in some ways the most iconic.  How can WWII or even Korea quite compete with a black wall that sinks into the landscape and is covered with thousands of names...  We first encountered the Three Servicemen Statue, which was recently restored in 2010.  Looking through my pictures I thought it was part of the Vietnam memorial but wasn't sure until I found it on the NPS website.  Sometimes the site is sparse on details, but other times it seems to have just what I'm looking for, :-).

The memorial itself is of course quite well known.  I decided to take a picture of the first name.

I hope that you've enjoyed this tour through the three war memorials on the National Mall.  You can see the whole album of DC pictures in the following slideshow (and be sure to look for a few more blog posts to round out the day):


~Matt