World War II Memorial

(1998) The World War II Memorial was dedicated on June 4, 1994 which coincided with the anniversay of "D-Day" on June 4, 1944. World War II was a conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945. The surprise aerial attack by Japan on December 7, 1941 on the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, followed at once by a declaration of war by Germany against the United States, transferred the european hostility into a global one. Before the war ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 9, 1945 and Japan on September 2, 1945, a total of almost seventy nations were involved. The costliest and most terrible war in all history came to an end on V-J Day with the formal surrender ceremonies aboard the U.S. Battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. Many major battles and other points of interest are identified on the map portions of the Memorial dividing both the European and Pacific Theaters of Operation. The center section depicts one side of the Great Seal of the United States.