WWII Memorial

Due to the amounts of lives lost in WWII there have been numerous memorials put up around the globe, dedicated to the soldiers who died in action. One of the most famous ones is the National World War II Memorial in Washington DC, USA. This memorial was erected to all the soldiers who served and died in the Second World War, and is located on the national mall in Washington DC. It was built on the former site of the rainbow pool which is located between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

The idea first came up when World War II veteran Roger Durbin approached Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur in 1987. He asked if a World War II memorial could be erected in remembrance of fallen comrades. Kaptur tried to introduce the World War II memorial act to the House of Representatives, but it was rejected. He attempted to pass it a further 3 times, until on the fourth in 1993 it was finally accepted and was signed into law by President Clinton on May 25th the same year.

With the bill finally passed, fundraising began, and the total $197 million dollars was raised to construct it. The site was then selected and Friedrich St. Florian’s design was chosen in 1997 yet construction did not take place until four years later and with a further two years, it was not completed until 2003.

Yet when it was finally built, criticisms began to appear regarding the monuments location. It had been built in the vista between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. This caused controversy mainly due to the fact that it interrupted the view, yet other criticisms befell it when people started complaining that it had taken up open space that had been historically linked to large protests. A most queer criticism came up as well, about the length of time for the monument to be approved. Such large public statues normally take a long time, but corners were cut by the government, mainly due to the fact that they were scared that the World War II veterans would die before it was constructed.