EXPLORING the LEGACY
The National WWII Museum is hosting a global conference in New Orleans on Sept. 10–12, 2020. “Memory Wars: World War II at 75” is a presentation of the Museum’s Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, held at the institution’s new Higgins Hotel & Conference Center. “Memory Wars” will explore World War II’S place in public memory through a global prism, examining how museums, filmmakers, media, memorials and historians (both academic and public) help shape memories of the conflict. We currently stand at a crossroads. The generation that fought the war is passing away, and firsthand accounts of World War II are transitioning from living memory into history. The year 2020, therefore, is a perfect time to take stock and pose fundamental questions: How is the war remembered today? How do public memories of the war differ, not only from country to country, but also within various societies? To give one example, the attack on Pearl Harbor remains the foremost WWII event in U.S. memory — a moment of “infamy,” a crime that dragged a reluctant America out of isolationism and into the war. But other combatants, such as Germany or the former Soviet Union, do not remember Pearl Harbor in the same way. Japan, too, has a very different narrative about Pearl Harbor and the causes of the war. And even within the United States, Pearl Harbor may hold different meanings, for example, for descendants of those Japanese Americans who spent the war in internment camps. “Memory Wars: World War II” at 75 will examine a range of provocative questions and issues related to collective memory of this global conflict. Was World War II really a “good war” for everyone? How do video games, films and other forms of popular culture shape our memory of World War II? Which memories of the Holocaust are we passing on to future generations? And what relevance do these public memories have for people around the world today? Do the war crime trials and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights still have relevance among the victors and victims of World War II? We believe that this reflective and forward-thinking conference will be both fascinating and profoundly meaningful. We hope you will join us for it. To register for the “Memory Wars” conference, visit nationalww2museum.org/ memory or call 1-877-813-3329 x 511.
One of these individuals, U.S. Sen. Theodore Stevens of Alaska, a veteran of the China-burmaindia campaign, offered a daunting challenge. Telling me and Ambrose that “this was the best museum in America on the war,” he said if we and museum trustees would agree to expand and tell the complete story of the WWII experience — on land, at sea, in the air and on the home front — then he would help obtain startup funding from Congress. We agreed (with some trepidation), and in the next three years, Stevens and his close friend, WWII veteran and Medal of Honor recipient Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, worked with Sen. Mary Landrieu and others in our Louisiana delegation to secure funding to purchase three city blocks and develop a master plan for expansion. The state of Louisiana and private donors also provided substantial funding help. With the land purchase and master plan complete by 2003, the museum announced a capital campaign of $288 million to develop a six-acre, 300,000-square-foot campus. Sens. Stevens, Inouye and Landrieu then gained approval of a resolution from Congress in 2004 designating The National WWII Museum as America’s official museum of the WWII experience. Ambrose died in 2002, passing the leadership torch to me, the founding president and CEO. Since 2000, we weathered tremendous setbacks from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, funding challenges and the economic recession of 2008. I worked steadily with the national Board of Trustees and a talented, resilient staff to create extraordinary exhibits and programs. These efforts were rewarded with dramatic increases in visitation and donations. The museum’s reputation reached new levels in 2009 when it premiered the 4D multimedia experience “Beyond All Boundaries,” produced by the Hettema Group and narrated by Hanks. Next came the opening of the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center, in 2013, followed in 2014-15 by the permanent exhibit galleries “The Road to Berlin” and “The Road to Tokyo” housed in the Campaigns of Courage: European and Pacific Theaters pavilion.
U.S. Sen. Theodore Stevens of Alaska, a veteran of the China-burmaindia campaign, offered a daunting challenge: If we would agree to expand and tell the complete story of the WWII experience, he would help obtain funding.
“The Arsenal of Democracy: The Herman and George R. Brown Salute to the Home Front” exhibit, which opened in 2017, devotes its galleries to the citizens who supported the war effort in countless ways. By 2017, the museum was ranked by Tripadvisor readers as the No. 2 most popular museum in America. The museum’s capstone Liberation Pavilion, opening in 2021, will focus on the war’s powerful legacies — one project driving an increase in our capital campaign goal to $400 million. And for distant audiences unable to visit our campus, the museum has established the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy and the WWII Media and Education Center to produce online content. Both are housed in the Hall of Democracy, opened in 2019. Meanwhile, our collection of WWII personal accounts — including many videotaped oral histories that can be viewed at ww2online.org — now total roughly 10,000. These accounts include early Ambrose interviews and will always be vital to our mission. Led by President & CEO Stephen Watson since mid-2017, The National WWII Museum is approaching completion as the premier educational institution for WWII history. We are honoring the millions who served, in distant combat zones and at home, as we explore and teach about an epic time in world history.
Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller is president and CEO emeritus of the National WWII Museum. His new collection of personal accounts from the Allied invasion of Normandy, “Everything We Have: D-day 6.6.44,” was released in March 2019 and draws on the museum’s collection of oral histories and artifacts.