National WWII Museum Set to Unveil ‘Road to Tokyo’
The National WWII Museum in New Orleans opens its newest permanent exhibit, “Road to Tokyo: Pacific Theater Galleries,” on 12 December.
“Road to Tokyo” retraces the grueling trail that led from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay and explores the evolving U.S. strategy for fighting Japanese forces in World War II, examining cultural differences, logistical challenges, and the staggering range of extreme conditions that confronted American military forces in Asia and the Pacific.Located on the second floor of the museum’s Campaigns of Courage pavilion, the exhibit occupies ten galleries showcasing more than 400 artifacts (including a shark-faced P-40 Warhawk), interactive oral-history kiosks, short films, and recreated wartime environments.
“The United States plunged into World War II following the Japanese surprise air attack on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor,” said Keith W. Huxen, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Director of Research and History for the National WWII Museum. “The war forced President Roosevelt and his chief advisers to confront strategic challenges on an epic scale. Securing U.S. victory in the Pacific required mobilizing American industry, gaining control of sea lanes and air zones, developing new technologies, executing amphibious landings, and overcoming vast distances.”
“Road to Tokyo” highlights the story of the tenacious spirit that carried the day. “The men and women who fought in the Pacific were courageous and deeply determined,” Huxen said. “The exhibit features content on the relentless work of the Seabees who built runways for island-hopping aircraft, and the steadfast scientists who created vaccines against devastating new diseases. This is the story of the Americans who literally forged a path to Tokyo through ingenuity and great sacrifice.”
The opening of the exhibit completes the museum’s Campaigns of Courage: European and Pacific Theaters pavilion. Located in the center of the campus, it initially opened in December 2014 with the launch of “Road to Berlin” on the first floor.Campaigns of Courage is also the primary setting for the museum’s “Dog Tag Experience,” an interactive feature that allows visitors to select a servicemember or civilian and follow the individual’s story through the war. As guests move through the galleries, they use digitally enabled dog-tag cards to check in with one American’s unfolding story, viewing that gallery’s events through the lens of a personal narrative. Following their museum experience, users can revisit the stories online and add digital artifacts and oral histories to create a personalized online gallery at www.dogtagexperience.org.
“Campaigns of Courage contains more than 19,000 square feet of exhibit space so that we can take visitors inside the details of each major challenge, deepening understanding of the heroic story of the war generation,” said Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, president and CEO of the museum. “This tale is one of determination and sacrifice, and we’re honored to share firsthand narratives directly from those who fought to bring the war to an end. Completing this pavilion helps us complete our mission. We’re excited to forge ahead with our expansion while we still have World War II veterans alive to see it.”
Lost Muskeget Weathermen Receive Recognition at Last
On 19 November, 73 years after the U.S. Coast Guard weather ship Muskeget (WAG-48) was targeted and sunk by the German sub U-755, the four civilian meteorologists on board were given Purple Hearts, making Lester Fodor, Luther Brady, George Kubach, and Edward Weber the first National Weather Service employees to receive the medals for service in the line of duty. Family members of three of the four weathermen attended the award ceremony at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.
On the afternoon of 9 September 1942, two torpedoes from the U-755 hit the Muskeget about 400 miles northeast of Newfoundland. None of the 121 men on board survived. According to the records of Kapitänleutnant Walter Göing, the U-boat captain, nothing remained of the weather ship several hours later but a sizeable oil slick.
About three years ago, historian and retired cartographer Robert Pendleton was researching how many personnel on board the weather ship had received Purple Hearts for their service. He found that everyone but the four civilians on board received the awards soon after the ship was reported missing. After enlisting the help of genealogists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coast Guard, the oversight was ultimately corrected.
Viking Ship to Retrace Historic Discovery Route
Vikings are making ready to re-land in America—tracing the route of their forebears a millennium ago, from Scandinavia to Iceland, then on to Greenland and the North American mainland. And they’re planning on doing it the old-fashioned way—in a Viking ship, naturally.
In May 2016 the Draken Harald Hårfagre, aka “the world’s largest Viking ship,” will leave her home port of Haugesund, Norway, and sail off to confront the challenges of the North Atlantic in an undertaking dubbed Expedition America 2016. The aim is to explore and relive one of the most mythological sea voyages—the first transatlantic crossing, and the Norsemen’s discovery of the New World some 500 years before Christopher Columbus’. Along the route, the ship will pay a call on historical Viking settlements at Shetland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Upon reaching the North American continent, the Draken Harald Hårfagre will visit ports both in Canada and the United States.
The Draken Harald Hårfagre is built along the lines of the famed Gokstad ship, a 9th-century vessel unearthed at a Norwegian burial mound and now an iconic presence at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. At 115 feet long and 26 feet wide, the Draken Harald Hårfagre is somewhat larger than her Gokstad inspiration, and sports a mast reaching up nearly 79 feet. She reached a top speed of 14 knots during 2014 sea trials.
For those imbued with the hardy Viking spirit, applications for Expedition America 2016 volunteers (both sailing and shore crews) are now open; visit www.drakenexpeditionamerica.com/application-for-volunteers.
What’s Up at the NHHC
Navy Department Library Seeks Collectible Memorabilia
Got ephemera? It’s been known to hide out in footlockers and old ammunition boxes tucked away in attics, basements, and crawl spaces. While it might sound like hazardous material, ephemera is the official name for loose papers and smaller publications, such as ship menus, newsletters, plans of the day, and sport programs called “smokers.”
Ephemera provides a bit of social documentary offering a peek inside a sailor’s world, which is why Glenn Helm, director of the Navy Department Library, seeks to expand the library’s collection. He needs the help of the Navy, veterans, and families of veterans, who might be tempted to toss out or recycle boxes stuffed with those papers.
“This paper ephemera was seldom collected by the Navy,” Helm said. “Documents like welcome-aboard pamphlets and change-of-command and retirement brochures were packed in howitzer boxes never to be seen again by the public.”
Ephemera can range from ship postal covers to shipboard entertainment programs to the booklets produced for a ship’s launching, christening, commissioning, and decommissioning. These documents tell a ship’s history even for vessels transferred to foreign governments.
“All offer a snapshot into who was who at the time, providing biographical information of speakers who may not show up anywhere else,” he said.
Newsletters and plans of the day offer insight into the life of the ship and the sailors, especially newsletters that sprinkled content from news services with on-board activities.
There are also collections of “smokers,” a type of program that has nothing to do with smoking. “All of the sporting programs were called that,” said Helm, “and most of the Navy had sporting events.”
Helm’s favorite ephemera from a ship’s cruise are menus, which reflect a changing society from a time when cigarettes were part of an evening meal. “We created a small online exhibit with menus, especially seasonal ones, and it has expanded over time.”
When such items are donated to the Navy Department Library, the more substantial ones—such as cruise books and sheet music—are catalogued and then listed in the library’s online catalog. Smaller collections are listed in the library’s online search aids on its section of the Naval History and Heritage Command’s website.
Helm has been a driving force behind the library’s online presence, a vital move considering the library is in one of the historic buildings at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Its online collection allows the public, unable to get on base, a chance to review the treasures held within.
“Thirteen percent of the titles in our 182,000-book collection are unique in the international OCLC [Online Computer Library Catalog] database,” Helm said. “Cruise books are a large part of that.” The library has 374,000 manuscripts, which include a great deal of paper ephemera.
“We’ve made a conscious effort to collect ephemera for more than 20 years,” he said.
To donate items to the Navy Department Library, call (202) 433-4132 between 0900 and 1600 Monday through Friday. To view the library’s online collection, visit www.history.navy.mil/research/library.html.
—Devon Hubbard Sorlie, Naval History and Heritage Command