War Memorials
July 12, 2005
It was an oppressively hot day, and the World War II Memorial offered little respite. A sliver of shade could be found along a low stone bench.. and a few people tried to avoid the sun that way. Otherwise, one just had to brave the heat. Not even the great fountains in the center delivered an appreciable amount of cool air.
Last summer on equally hot days I would occasionally dip into the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. The great open courtyard lay exposed to the sun, but surrounding the courtyard were covered columns.. and I always found it easy to find a shaded place to sit. From there I looked out and saw groups of young people sitting around and talking, children running and yelling in the sun, followed closely by parents, and some just leaning against a column and sleeping. The mosque furnished the eye with fantastic golden mosaics of a lush stream and fabulous houses.. and when the eye is resting, the mind quickly wanders.
There are two granite poles to the World War II Memorial: the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, each represented by an open tower. Then there is circle of granite pillars, upon each of which is inscribed the name of a state or territory. Every state of the union is there, plus territories like Guam and American Samoa. I have no doubt that individuals from every state and territory contributed to the cause.. but what really is the point of naming individually every state and territory? These individual pillars are adorned with twin bronze wreaths, one composed of wheat and the other of oak. Again, the significance is not obvious. Along the base of the two towers representing the Atlantic and Pacific theaters there were names of important battles.. “Midway” and “ Guadalcanal”, for example, were prominent on the Pacific side. But these were just words, and certainly with the sun beating down there was no reason to linger.. just as there was no reason to linger on the interesting bronze plaques placed at both sides of the wide glaring 17 th Street entrance to the monument.
The World War II Memorial gave me the feeling that someone once sat down in front of a blank piece of graph paper and drafted a symmetrical and expensive memorial which looks fine on paper, but which takes not thought of the human beings who will walk around its large circle.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is, on the other hand, one of the masterpieces of our capital. There is no place to sit here either, but then it is not a memorial that seeks lingering.. it is a directed experience. The visitor gently descends, watching the mirror-like black panels grow deeper and more full of names.. and then one ascends on the other side. It is a moving experience, made more so by the flowers and mementoes that are left along the wall, and by the sight of people searching for a name or using a pencil to trace a name one onto a blank sheet of paper.
Both of these are called “memorials”, yet their intents are completely different. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a linear memorial which funnels a visitor into a single well-constructed path.. There is only one way to experience it. The World War II Memorial has no such linear plan; there are many ways to enter, and then no particular way to walk around the circle. That is fine, of course, but the success of this memorial will be determined by how well it induces visitors to linger and think..
I wish the World War II Memorial would have been designed more like the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.. As it stands, it provides a nice addition to aerial photographs of this section of the capital, but fails as a monument whose granite workmanship is meant to be experienced by human beings.
