by Peter J.
The memorial to World War Two in D.C was authorized in May 1993 and opened on April 29th, 2004. 17 years in the making, it was inspired by a World War Two veteran named Roger Durbin, who prompted U.S Rep. Macy Kaptur to introduce legislation that would build a memorial to the sacrifices the men and women of America undertook to claim victory in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters. It took more than 16 million dollars in federal funding and 164 million dollars in private funding before the monument would be complete. Designed by Friedrich St. Florian, who won a competition to design the memorial, its construction took place between 2001 and 2004. Its location, at the site of the Rainbow Pool, was somewhat controversial due to the pool’s historic role in being a place for protests and demonstrations. The memorial is positioned between the Lincoln and Washington Monuments.
The memorial itself is a grand structure, with 56 granite columns, each 17 feet tall, surrounding a pool of water with a running fountain.
Each column is labeled with the name of a U.S state or territory that took part in the war, to honor the achievements of individual areas.
While not readily apparent, the columns honoring the states are arranged in the order that the state became part of the United States, alternating from side to side. The “Freedom Wall” honors the hundreds of thousands of American servicemen who died during World War Two and contains thousands of stars. There are 24 bronze reliefs illustrating the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific. There are two 43-foot pavilions by the entrances on both sides, with inscriptions commemorating victories in the aforementioned two theaters of combat. In the pavilions, four bronze columns hold up four American Eagles that hold a victory laurel.
On the floor it is an inlayed World War Two victory medal, which is surrounded by the words “1941-1945,” “Victory on Land,” “Victory at Sea,” and “Victory in the Air.”
The entrances each separately honor each of these theaters. The walls are adorned with inscriptions with quotes from various figures, including wartime President Harry Truman. One reads, “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.” The memorial is careful to make reference to the sacrifices women made during the conflict, with one quote from President Roosevelt reading, “They have given their sons to the military services. They have stoked the furnaces and hurried the factory wheels. They have made the planes and welded the tanks, riveted the ships and rolled the shells,” in an apparent nod to the contributions of women, both emotionally and practically. The effort to include women in the American victory likely reflects newer historical narratives of World War Two, which make more of an effort to shed light on the contributions of women to the conflict on the home front, and elsewhere.
The monument memorializes the conflict in its grandiosity by replicating the long-held American view of the conflict that it was something great, a battle we fought against true evil in the name of democracy and justice. The looming columns, stirring quotes, and grey, almost austere nature of the memorial contribute to a sensation that one is walking through something truly heroic, but also somber. The lack of color is almost off-putting in a memorial with so many grand structures but in a subtle way serves as a reminder that, despite all our nation’s achievements in World War Two, 400,000 Americans did perish.
The effort to reference both theaters equally is interesting, in light of America’s “Germany first” strategy, and the controversy that continues to surround its end to the war in the Pacific, although the one direct attack on a center of American population occurred in Pacific theater. Given that it is a memorial to the sacrifices behind World War Two, no mention is made of some of the uglier, or more controversial parts of America’s involvement in the war, such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the fire bombing of Dresden, for example. The memorial is solely dedicated to the commemoration of our victory of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. Being a war memorial to the sacrifices of the American people, no mention is also made of the sacrifices of our allies, primarily Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and their contribution to the war effort.
The memorial is currently under construction on its north entrance. It retains its importance by being D.C’s main memorial to the conflict during World War Two and the three-hectare piece of land it rests on is today visited by millions each year.
