Fifty-six granite pillars ring the oval plaza of the World War Two Memorial, dedicated at the center of the National Mall in 2004. Fifty-six granite pillars surround an oval plaza — one for each state and territory that sent men and women into the war. The twin pavilions at the north and south represent the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.
More than sixteen million Americans served in World War Two. Four hundred five thousand did not come home. At the time, that represented roughly one in every three hundred Americans alive in 1940.
The memorial's central fountain and pool are flanked by the Freedom Wall on the western arc. Look carefully at that wall — it holds four thousand gold stars. Each star represents one hundred Americans killed in the war. Do the math: that's four hundred thousand dead represented in gold against white marble.
Construction was controversial not just because of cost and design, but because of location. It sits directly on the central axis of the Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, and critics argued it disrupted the grand open vista L'Enfant had planned. The debate went all the way to Congress.
Notice the bronze bas-relief panels along the entrance showing scenes from both theaters of war: North Africa, the Pacific Islands, the industrial home front, D-Day.
This memorial came late. Many of the veterans it honors were in their seventies and eighties when it opened. Some attended in wheelchairs. The generation it honors is now nearly gone.