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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOASpecial English. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today, come with us to the National WorldWar Two Memorial which just opened in Washington. And meet some ofthe people it honors.
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VOICE ONE:
The United States observesMemorial Day on the last Monday in May. This holiday is forAmericans to honor members of the armed forces who died in wars.
In World War Two, the United States and its allies fought Japan,Germany and Italy, together known as the Axis powers.Sixteen-million men and women served in the American militarybetween nineteen-forty-one and nineteen-forty-five. More thanfour-hundred-thousand never returned home.
Today fewer and fewer veterans of the war are still alive. Eachday a thousand more die.
Yet, until now, the nation's capital had no special place toremember their service to their country.
VOICE TWO:
Now it does. The National WorldWar Two Memorial officially opened on Saturday in Washington, D.C.Organizers put together four days of observances.
The American Battle Monuments Commission planned a series ofactivities. Events included a huge reunion for the young soldiers,sailors, nurses, and pilots of sixty years ago.
Thousands of women served in the armed forces during World WarTwo. They were nurses and pilots, intelligence and office workers,teachers and musicians. Many women aided the war effort by workingin defense factories.
And what would reliving the nineteen-forties be withoutremembering big band and swing sounds, like the music of GlennMiller's Orchestra.
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VOICE ONE:
Roger Durbin remembered those days. He was in World War Two. TheUnited States did not want to enter the war. But on Decemberseventh, nineteen-forty-one, Japan bombed the Navy base at PearlHarbor, Hawaii. Congress acted quickly to declare war. By this time,Nazi Germany had already invaded and occupied western Europe.
Roger Durbin fought in the Battle of the Bulge innineteen-forty-four. That was the last major campaign by the Germansto stop the Allied invasion of Europe. Germany surrendered in Maynineteen-forty-five.
Forty years later, Roger Durbin was at a political event in hishome state of Ohio. This Army veteran shouted a question to hislocal congresswoman. Mister Durbin wanted to know why the nation'scapital had no memorial to his war.
VOICE TWO:
Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio did not let that question gounanswered. In nineteen-eighty-seven, the congresswoman proposed aWorld War Two memorial for Washington. Yet, six years went by beforeCongress passed legislation to build it. Then, seemingly endlessdelays followed.
Placement, cost, design – there was debate about everything. Suchdelays are really not so unusual, though. Work finally started inSeptember of two-thousand-one. The memorial cost more thanone-hundred-seventy-million-dollars. Much of it came from privategifts.
VOICE TWO:
Over the years, Roger Durbin worked from Ohio to raise money.Schoolchildren gave what they could. Former Kansas Senator Bob Doleand businessman Frederick Smith led a national campaign to collectmoney. Mister Dole was a hero in World War Two and, in recent years,a candidate for president. In the end, all the efforts raised moremoney than the memorial needed.
Now, completed, it rises between the Washington Monument and theLincoln Memorial along the National Mall.
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VOICE ONE:
The National World War Two Memorial stands in the open air.Visitors enter from Seventeenth Street in Northwest Washington. Theceremonial entrance opens into an area shaped like an egg. It isabout the size of a football field.
Friedrich St. Florian, an Austrian-born architect in the UnitedStates, designed the memorial. It is built of bronze and granite.The gray stone looks white in the sun.
In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. Morewater shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. When thesunlight strikes just right, rainbows of color dance in the air.
Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent thestates, territories and the District of Columbia at the time of thewar. Two tall arches carry the names of where it all took place. Onesays "Atlantic"; the other says "Pacific."
Along one side of the memorial is a wall three meters high butmuch wider. This is called the Freedom Wall. On it are four-thousandgold stars. These honor the more than four-hundred-thousandAmericans killed in the war. In front of the wall are these words:"Here we mark the price of freedom."
VOICE TWO:
Hector Blanchette came from Connecticut to see the new memorial.He is visiting with his son who lives near Washington. MisterBlanchette remembers Washington from long ago. Before World War Two,he helped build an airport here. He says he joined the Army because"that is what young men did then."
For the next several years, Hector Blanchette helped prepareshores on New Guinea and other islands so American ships could land.He was sent to Japan after the Japanese surrendered in September ofnineteen-forty-five.
VOICE ONE:
A woman from Maryland is taking pictures of a pillar that says"Indiana." Two of her family members from that state went to war.One of them, Allen Anderson, still lives in Porter County, Indiana.
Mister Anderson says he joined the Navy at seventeen. He becamean airplane repairman on a small aircraft carrier in the PacificOcean.
VOICE TWO:
Allen Anderson says he will never forget the Battle of LeyteGulf. It happened in October of nineteen-forty-four. At that time,the United States was trying to recapture the Philippine islandsfrom the Japanese. Some historians call it the greatest sea battleever fought. More than two-hundred-eighty ships took part. The youngAmerican sailor stayed at his battle station for seventy-two hours.
The Americans had to deal not only with Japanese shells. Theyalso had to look out for kamikaze pilots. These pilots would try tocrash their planes into American ships.
Over several days, the Americans sank many Japanese ships. TheJapanese navy never recovered from the loss of the Battle of LeyteGulf.
VOICE ONE:
Recently we also talked to an eighty-four-year-old woman. She isa retired clothing designer from Chevy Chase, Maryland. She spentsome of the war restricted to a camp in California. PresidentFranklin Roosevelt had ordered that people of Japanese ancestry beheld as threats to security.
This woman did not want us to give her name.
She got married in the camp. Her husband, also of Japaneseancestry, offered to join an intelligence agency in Washington.Years later, he was honored for his secret work.
VOICE TWO:
Nancy Dayhoff is an artist. She still has a clear image of WorldWar Two in her mind. She was a college student. She was in love witha soldier named Thomas Belmont. In nineteen-forty-four, he receivedorders to go to Europe. Like other soldiers, he did not know if hewould return alive.
So he and his girlfriend raced around New York City. They wantedto get married, quickly. But first they had to get the requiredlegal documents and find a church, which they did.
Soon afterwards, Thomas Belmont left for Italy. He fought in thewar and survived. He lived until nineteen-eighty-two.
VOICE ONE:
Not far from the new military memorial are two others. TheVietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen-eighty-two. The KoreanWar Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen-ninety-five.
The veteran who dreamed of a national memorial to his war did notlive to see it built. Roger Durbin died of cancer four months beforeground was broken.
The National World War Two Memorial honors the millions whoserved at a time when their nation, and the world, needed theirhelp. This Memorial Day, Washington has a new place to rememberhistory.
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA,in VOA Special English.