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[[Image:Melbourne war memorial02.jpg|thumb|right|[[Shrine of Remembrance]] in Melbourne, [[Australia]].]]

[[Image:OttawaWarMemorial.jpg|thumb|right|The [[National War Memorial (Canada)|National War Memorial]] in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]].]]
[[Image:Gentioux Monument aux morts pacifiste 1.JPG|thumb|right|Pacifist memorial at Gentioux, France with the inscription 'Cursed be war']]
[[Image:Monument to the People's Heroes.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Monument to the People's Heroes]] in Beijing, [[China]].]]
[[Image:Niedaltdorf-kriegerdenkmal.jpg|thumb|right|[[Germany|German]] memorial commemorating [[World War I]].]]
[[File:India gate-1-.jpg|thumbnail|right|[[India Gate]], Monument in [[New Delhi]], [[India]]]]
[[Image:Yasukuni Jinja 7 032.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Yasukuni Shrine]] in [[Japan]].]]
[[Image:AucklandMuseum edit gobeirne.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Auckland War Memorial Museum]] in [[New Zealand]] with the [[Cenotaph]] out front.]]
[[Image:Warsaw wwII 1.jpg|thumb|right|Monument to the Heroes of the [[Warsaw Uprising]] in [[Poland]].]]
[[Image:Portland.stone.cenotaph.london.arp.jpg|thumb|right|[[The Cenotaph, Whitehall|The Cenotaph in Whitehall]], London, [[United Kingdom]].]]
[[Image:Women of World War II.jpg|thumb|right|[[Monument to the Women of World War II]] in [[London]]]]
[[Image:KCMO LibertyMemorial 2003.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Liberty Memorial]], National World War I Memorial of the [[United States of America|USA]] in [[Kansas City, Missouri]].]]

A '''war memorial''' is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a [[war]] or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.

==Symbolism==
===Historic usage===
For most of human history war [[memorials]] were erected to commemorate great victories. Remembering the dead was a secondary concern. Indeed in [[Napoleon]]'s day the dead were shoveled into mass, unmarked graves. The [[Arc de Triomphe]] in Paris or [[Nelson's Column]] in London contain no names of those killed.
By the end of the nineteenth century it was common for regiments in the [[British Army]] to erect monuments to their comrades who had died in small Imperial Wars and these memorials would list their names. By the early twentieth century some towns and cities in the [[United Kingdom]] raised the funds to commemorate the men from their communities who had fought and died in the [[Second Anglo-Boer War]].
However it was after the great losses of the First World War that commemoration took center stage and most communities erected a war memorial listing those men and women who had gone to war and not returned.

===Modern usage===
[[File:Rose-at-war-memorial.jpg|thumb|left|red rose at war memorial with blurred crosses in the background]]
In modern times the main intent of war memorials is not to glorify war, but to honor those who have died. Sometimes, as in the case of the [[Warschauer Kniefall|Warsaw Genuflection]] of [[Willy Brandt]], they may also serve as focal points of increasing understanding between previous enemies.

Using modern technology an international project is currently archiving all post-1914 Commonwealth war graves and [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]] memorials to create a virtual memorial (see [[The War Graves Photographic Project]] for further details).

==History==
===World War I===
During the [[World War I|First World War]], many nations saw massive devastation and loss of life. More people lost their lives in the east than in the west, but the outcome was different. In the west, and in response to the victory there obtained, most of the cities in the countries involved in the conflict erected memorials, with the memorials in smaller villages and towns often listing the names of each local soldier who had been killed in addition (so far as the decision by the French and British in 1916 to construct governmentally designed cemeteries was concerned) to their names being recorded on military headstones, often against the will of those directly involved, and without any opportunity of choice in the British Empire ([[Imperial War Graves Commission]]). Massive British monuments commemorating thousands of dead with no identified [[war grave]], such as the [[Menin Gate Memorial|Menin Gate]] at [[Ypres]] and the [[Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme|Thiepval memorial]] on the Somme, were also constructed. The [[Liberty Memorial]], located in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], is a memorial dedicated to all Americans who served in the Great War. For various reasons connected with their character, the same may be said to apply to certain governmental memorials in the United Kingdom (the [[Cenotaph]] in London, relating to the Empire in general, and the [[Scottish National War Memorial]] in Edinburgh, also with a reference to the Empire, but with particular connections to the [[United Kingdom]], having been opened by the Prince of Wales in 1927 and with the King and the Queen the first visitors and contributors of a casket of the Scottish names for addition within the Shrine).

===Pacifist war memorials and those relating to war and peace===
After World War I, some towns in France set up pacifist war memorials. Instead of commemorating the glorious dead, these memorials denounce war with figures of grieving widows and children rather than soldiers. Such memorials provoked anger among veterans and the military in general. The most famous is at [[Gentioux-Pigerolles]] in the department of [[Creuse]]. Below the column which lists the name of the fallen stands an orphan in bronze pointing to an inscription ‘Maudite soit la guerre’ (Cursed be war). Feelings ran so high that the memorial was not officially inaugurated until 1990 and soldiers at the nearby army camp were under orders to turn their heads when they walked past. Another such memorial is in the small town of [[Équeurdreville-Hainneville]] (formerly Équeurdreville) in the department of [[Manche]]. Here the statue is of a grieving widow with two small children.<ref>{{cite book | last = Coëpel | first = Philippe | title = Que maudite soit la guerre | publisher = Editions des champs | year = 1997 | location = Bricqueboscq | pages = 204 | isbn = 2-910138-08-9}}</ref><ref>For pictures of the pacifist memorials at Gentioux-Pigerolles and at Équeurdreville-Hainneville and elsewhere see [[:fr:Monument aux morts pacifiste]]</ref> There seems to be no exact equivalent form of memorial within the United Kingdom but evidently sentiments were in many cases identical. Thus, and although it seems that this has never been generally recognized, it can be argued that there was throughout the United Kingdom a construction of war memorials with reference to the concept of peace (e.g. a war memorial in what is now known as [[West Hartlepool War Memorial|Hartlepool]] (previously [[West Hartlepool]]) with the inscription 'Thine O Lord is the Victory' relating to amongs other architecture the [[Royal Albert Hall|1871 Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences]] with a frieze including the same words and concluding 'Glory be to God on high and on earth peace').
It seems also to be the case that relatives were after the First World War (and possibly after other subsequent wars) in the United Kingdom and possibly also in France given the option, presumably on the basis that the issue was historically somewhat controversial, of not having the names of their military casualties included on war memorials, notwithstanding that this approach was arguably either in clear parallel with or in support of the form of the memorials erected in the [[Russian Soviet Socialist Republic]], these questions being at the time (the First World War) therefore reflected in political controversy.

===World War II and later===
In many cases, World War I memorials were later extended to show the names of locals who died in the [[World War II]] in addition.

Since that time memorials to the dead in other conflicts such as the [[Korean War]] and [[Vietnam War]] have also noted individual contributions, at least in the West.

In relation to actions which may well in point of fact be historically connected with the world wars even if this happens, for whatever reason, not to be a matter of general discussion (e.g. occupation by Western forces in the 1920s of Palestine and other areas being the homelands of Arabs in the Near East and followed eighty years later in 2001 by the '9/11' raid on New York and elsewhere in the United States) similar historically and architecturally significant memorials are also designed and constructed (vide [[National September 11 Memorial]]).

==Types==
* A war memorial can be an entire building, often containing a [[museum]], or just a simple plaque. Many war memorials take the form of a monument or [[statue]], and serve as a meeting place for Memorial Day services. As such, they are often found near the centre of town, or contained in a park or plaza to allow easy public access.

* Many war memorials bear plaques listing the names of those that died in battle. Sometimes these lists can be very long. Some war memorials are dedicated to a specific battle, while others are more general in nature and bear inscriptions listing various theatres of war.

* Many war memorials have [[epitaph]]s relating to the unit, battle or war they commemorate. For example an epitaph which adorns numerous memorials in Commonwealth countries is "The Ode" by [[Laurence Binyon]]:
:''They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.''
:''Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.''
:''At the going down of the sun and in the morning''
:''We will remember them.''

* The [[Memorial Arch]] at the [[Royal Military College of Canada]], which remembers ex-cadets who died on military service includes lines of [[Rupert Brooke]]'s poem, The Dead:

:''Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead.''
:''There are none of these so lonely and poor of old,''
:''But dying has made us rarer gifts than gold.''

* The Memorial Flag of the [[Royal Military College of Canada]] consisted of a Union Jack on a background adorned with 1100 green maple leaves bearing name of ex-cadets who served in war. The red maple leaves in centre memorialized cadets who made the supreme sacrifice. The Memorial Stairway in the administration building is lined with paintings of ex-cadets who died on military service, which is visited by about 1,000 people each year. The Royal Military College of Canada Gentlemen cadets Roll of Honour remembers ex-cadets who died on military service.

* The granite slab at the [[Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean]], which is a [[World War II]] War Memorial, which remembers ex-cadets who died on military service, includes the Bible 2 Timothy 4:6-8 (King James Version) quote,
:''I have fought the good fight,''
:''I have finished my course,''
:''I have kept the faith.''

* The [[Kohima]] Epitaph which is on the [[World War II]] War Memorial for the Allied fallen at the [[Battle of Kohima]] says:
:''When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,''
:''For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today''

==In cemeteries==
Many cemeteries tended by the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission|War Graves Commission]] have an identical war memorial called the [[Cross of Sacrifice]] designed by Sir [[Reginald Blomfield]] that varies in height from 18&nbsp;ft to 32&nbsp;ft depending on the size of the [[cemetery]]. If there are one thousand or more burials, a Commonwealth cemetery will contain a Stone of Remembrance, designed by Sir [[Edwin Lutyens]] with words from the [[Wisdom of Sirach]]: "Their name liveth for evermore"; all the Stones of Remembrance are 11&nbsp;ft 6 ins long and 5&nbsp;ft high with three steps leading up to them.

[[Arlington National Cemetery]] has a Canadian Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the USA who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during the [[Korean War]] and two World Wars.

==Controversy==
Unsurprisingly, war memorials can be politically controversial. A notable example are the [[controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine]] in Japan, where a number of convicted [[World War II]] [[war criminal]]s are interred. Chinese and Korean representatives have often protested against the visits of Japanese politicians to the shrine. The visits have in the past led to severe diplomatic conflicts between the nations, and Japanese businesses were attacked in China after a visit by former Japanese Prime Minister [[Junichiro Koizumi]] to the shrine was widely reported and criticized in Chinese and Korean media.<ref>''[http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/s1849512.htm Japan: Chinese foreign minister on fence-mending visit]'' - ''[[Radio Australia]]'' program transcript, date unknown</ref>

In a similar case, former German chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] was criticised by writers [[Günter Grass]] and [[Elie Wiesel]] for visiting the war cemetery at Bitburg (in the company of [[Ronald Reagan]]) which also contained the bodies of [[Schutzstaffel|SS troops]].<ref>''[http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/international/europe/06REAG.html Reagan Joins Kohl in Brief Memorial at Bitburg Graves]'' - ''[[New York Times]]'', Monday 6 May 1985</ref> Unlike the case of the Yasukuni Shrine, there was no element of intentional disregard of international opinion involved, as is often claimed for the politician visits to the Japanese shrine.

Soviet World War II memorials included quotes of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s texts, frequently replaced after his death. Such memorials were often constructed in city centres and now are sometimes regarded as symbols of Soviet occupation and removed, which in turn may spark protests (see [[Bronze Soldier of Tallinn]]).

The memorial arch to the [[Royal Dublin Fusiliers]] who fought in the [[Boer War]], erected at 1907 in [[St. Stephen's Green]], [[Dublin]], was called "[[Traitors' Gate]]" by the [[John Redmond|Redmondites]] and later [[Irish Republicans]], from whose point of view Irish soldiers going off to fight the [[British Empire]]'s wars were traitors to Ireland. The sharpness of the controversy gradually faded, and while the term "Traitors' Gate" is still in occasional colloquial use in Dublin daily life, it has mostly lost its pejorative meaning.

In [[Australia]], in [[1981]], [[historian]] [[Henry Reynolds]] raised the issue of whether war memorials should be erected to [[Indigenous Australians]] who had died fighting against [[United Kingdom|British]] invaders on their lands.
:''"How, then, do we deal with the Aboriginal dead? White Australians frequently say that 'all that' should be forgotten. But it will not be. It cannot be. Black memories are too deeply, too recently scarred. And forgetfulness is a strange prescription coming from a community which has revered the fallen warrior and emblazoned the phrase 'Lest We Forget' on monuments throughout the land. [...] [D]o we make room for the Aboriginal dead on our memorials, cenotaphs, boards of honour and even in the pantheon of national heroes? If we are to continue to celebrate the sacrifice of men and women who died for their country can we deny admission to fallen tribesmen? There is much in their story that Australians have traditionally admired. They were ever the underdogs, were always outgunned, yet frequently faced death without flinching. If they did not die for Australia as such they fell defending their homelands, their sacred sites, their way of life. What is more the blacks bled on their own soil and not [[Battle of Gallipoli|half a world away]] furthering the strategic objectives of [[United Kingdom|a distant Motherland]] whose influence must increasingly be seen as of transient importence in the history of the continent."''<ref>Reynolds, Henry, ''The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia'', 1981, ISBN 0-86840-892-1, p.202</ref>
Reynolds' suggestion proved controversial.<ref>Reynolds, Henry, ''Why Weren't We Told?'', 1999, ISBN 0-14-027842-7, chapter 12: "Lest We Forget", pp.169-184</ref> Occasional memorials have been erected to commemorate Aboriginal people's resistance to colonisation, or to commemorate [[List of massacres of Indigenous Australians|white massacres of Indigenous Australians]]. These memorials have often generated controversy. For example, a 1984 memorial to the [[Kalkadoon]] people's "resistance against the paramilitary force of European settlers and the Queensland Native Mounted Police" was "frequently shot at" and "eventually blown up".<ref>''ibid'', pp.177-8</ref>

With the advent of long war, some memorials are constructed before the conflict is over, leaving space for extra names of the dead. For instance, the [[Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial]] in [[Irvine, California|Irvine, CA]], memorializes an ongoing pair of US wars, and has space to inscribe the names of approximately 8,000 fallen servicemembers,<ref>http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ihsLW9amV1E/S4R1kx2Z-vI/AAAAAAAAAhs/F0gIKTbHiTs/s1600-h/northwood_memorial.jpg</ref> while the UK [[National Memorial Arboretum]] near [[Lichfield]] in England hosts the UK's [[National Armed Forces Memorial]] which displays the names of the more than 16,000 people who have already died on active service in the UK armed forces since World War Two, with more space available for future fatalities.

It seems that in at least one country newly added names are dedicated each year at a special eucumenical service in the presence of family members, veterans and invited dignitaries {{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}; the historical and political issues that are involved are arguably numerous and complicated; they can certainly be said to include both the issue of whether it makes any historical sense whatsoever that the names of the dead in war can be added in this fashion into what seems to be intended to be an indefinite future while completely ignoring those of the military who died in what is effectively, from the point of view of nationality and politics, the same military actions over the period of all the previous centuries in which the country in question existed, and also an issue which is perhaps even more relevant from a personal and legal point of view, namely whether the relatives and others who should in principle, together with any others involved in point of law, be in some sort of control of the use of the names of the dead for commemorative purposes will necessarily be in accordance with the military decisions taken by the government, or the character of the government itself, it being the case that if they are not they may not wish the names to be included (this citizen right having it seems, on the record, been generally observed at the time of the erection of the war memorials after the First World War in particular in western Europe, if not it seems after the Second World War). This possibility can perhaps be said to relate to the perhaps rather complicated legal position (at least up to the First World War and the creation in the United Kingdom of the [[Imperial War Graves Commission]], and as in record from the classical Roman times) that the bodies of the dead (and consequently also presumably the commemoration of their names?) are not apparently, in legal terms, within the normal law of property.

==Famous examples==
===Africa===
*'''Egypt'''
[[Unknown Soldier Memorial (Egypt)]]

===Americas===
*'''Canada'''
**[[Canadian war memorials|List of Canada war memorials]]

*'''USA'''
**[[Iron Mike]]
**[[Korean War Veterans Memorial]]
**[[National Cemetery]]
**[[Navy – Merchant Marine Memorial]]
**[[Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial]]<ref>http://www.northwoodmemorial.com/</ref>
**[[Spirit of the American Doughboy]]
**[[Tomb of the Unknowns]]
**[[USMC War Memorial|United States Marine Corps War Memorial]]
**[[United States Navy Memorial]]
**[[Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument]]
**[[Vietnam Veterans Memorial]]
**[[Vietnam Women's Memorial]]
**[[Liberty Memorial|World War I Memorial]]
**[[World War II Memorial]]

===Asia===
*'''Bangladesh
**[[Jatiyo Smriti Soudho]], [[Savar]], in [[Bangladesh]]

*'''China'''
***[[Monument to the People's Heroes]] (Beijing)

**'''Hong Kong'''
***[[The Cenotaph (Hong Kong)]]

*'''India'''
**[[India Gate]] (National Monument of India)
**[[War Memorial]] ([[Chennai]])

*'''Iraq'''
**[[Al-Shaheed Monument]]

*'''Japan'''
**[[Yasukuni Shrine]]

*'''Malaysia'''
**[[Tugu Negara]] (National Monument)

*'''Singapore'''
**[[Kranji War Cemetery|Kranji Memorial]]

*'''South Korea'''
**[[War Memorial (Seoul)|The War Memorial Museum]]
**[[Gapyeong Canada Monument]]

===Europe===
*'''Austria'''
**[[Soviet war memorial (Vienna)]]

*'''Belarus'''
**[[Brest Fortress]] (Brest)

*'''Belgium'''
**[[Menin Gate|Menin Gate Memorial]] (Ypres)
**[[Saint Julien Memorial]] (Langemark )
**[[Island of Ireland Peace Park]] (Messines)

*'''Estonia'''
**[[Independence War Victory Column]] (Tallinn)

*'''France'''
**[[Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial|Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial Park]]
**[[Douaumont ossuary|Douaumont Ossuary Verdun]]
**[[Mametz Wood Memorial|Welsh Memorial at Mametz Wood]]
**[[Notre Dame de Lorette]]
**[[Verdun Memorial]]
**[[Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial]] (Australian World War I Memorial)
**[[Vimy Memorial|Vimy Ridge Memorial]] (Canadian World War I Memorial)
**[[Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme]] (British World War I Memorial)
**[[Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial]] (USA World War II Memorial)

*'''Germany'''
**[[Tannenberg memorial]]
**[[Völkerschlachtdenkmal]]
**[[Befreiungshalle]]
**[[Hermannsdenkmal]]
**[[Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)]]

*'''Ireland'''
**[[Garden of Remembrance (Dublin)|Garden of Remembrance]]
**[[National War Memorial, Islandbridge]]

*'''Italy'''
**Sacrario militare di Redipuglia

*'''Netherlands'''
**[[National Monument (Amsterdam)|National Monument]] (Amsterdam)
**[[Netherlands American Cemetery]]
**[[Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery|Groesbeek Memorial, Canadian War Cemetery]]
**Liberty Monument Welberg(Welberg (Steenbergen))

*'''Romania'''
**[[Mărăşeşti|Mausoleum of Mărăşeşti]]
**[[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Bucharest)|Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]]

*'''Russia'''
**[[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Moscow)|Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]]
**[[Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery]]
**[[Poklonnaya Gora]]
**[[Mamayev Kurgan]]

*'''Spain'''
**[[Valle de los Caídos|Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen)]]

*'''Turkey'''
**Zafer Anıtı-Turkish İndependence War Glory Memorial
**Ulus Cumhuriyet Anıtı-Ulus Turkish Republic Memorial
**Guven Anıtı-Turkish Soldiers Memorial
**Gelibolu Peninsula ([[Gallipoli]])
**Korean War Veterans Memorial
**Turkish İndependence War Memorial

*'''UK'''
**[[Armed Forces Memorial|The National Armed Forces Memorial]] in [[Alrewas]], [[Staffordshire]]
**[[The Cenotaph, Whitehall]], [[London]]
**[[Cenotaph#The Cenotaph, Belfast|The Cenotaph, Belfast]]
**[[Hall of Memory, Birmingham]]
**[[Spean Bridge|Commando Memorial]], [[Spean Bridge]], [[Highland (council area)|Highland]]
**[[Lewis War Memorial]], [[Stornoway]], [[Western Isles]]
**[[National Firefighters Memorial]]
**[[Scottish National War Memorial]], [[Edinburgh Castle]], [[City of Edinburgh]]
**[[Shot at Dawn Memorial]]
**[[the Unknown Warrior]] in [[Westminster Abbey]]
**[[Monument to the Women of World War II|Women of World War II]], [[London]]
**[[Welsh National War Memorial]], [[Cardiff]]
**[[Scottish War Memorials]]
**[[Northern Ireland War Memorial]]

===Oceania===
*'''Australia'''
**[[Australian War Memorial]] (Canberra)
**[[ANZAC War Memorial]] (Sydney)
**[[Shrine of Remembrance]] (Melbourne)
**[[National War Memorial (South Australia)|National War Memorial]] (Adelaide)
**[[Hobart Cenotaph]] (Hobart)
**[[Shrine of Remembrance, Brisbane|Shrine of Remembrance]] (Brisbane)

*'''New Zealand'''
**[[Auckland War Memorial Museum]]

==See also==
*[[Alexander Carrick]] (Scottish sculptor responsible for several Scottish war memorials)
* [[Avenue of Honour]]
* [[Cenotaph]]
* [[Commemorative plaque]]
* [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]] (memorials ''specifically'' dedicated to unknown soldiers)
* [[Tropaeum Traiani]], in Romania
* [[UK National Inventory of War Memorials]] (online database listing all war memorials in the UK)
* [[War grave]]
* [[War Memorial Stadium]] (for list of stadiums so named in the United States)
* [[Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument]]<ref>[http://www.vummf.org/background.htm Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument Fund<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> in Coronado, California
*[[United States Memorials]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Memorials}}
'''General''':
*[http://sites-of-memory.de/main/index.html Sites of Memory] (Historical markers, memorials, monuments, and cemeteries worldwide)

'''France''':
*[http://moulindelangladure.typepad.fr/monumentsauxmortspacif/ Mémorial pacifist in French]
* [http://queutchny1418.canalblog.com Queutchny1418] (As of May 5, 2011, more than 3550 Pictures of 1914-1918 memorials)(in French)
* [http://www.memorial-genweb.org Mémorial-GenWeb] (French war memorials (photos and inscriptions), in [[French language|French]])

'''Germany''':
*[http://www.denkmalprojekt.org German war memorials] (photos and inscriptions), in [[German language|German]]
*[http://wordsoffireinkofblood.blogspot.com/2007/03/in-memoriam.html Remembering The Reich] (German World War II and Holocaust memorials, private travel blog entry)

'''Ireland''':
*[http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie Irish War Memorials], (An inventory of war memorials in Ireland)

'''Japan''':
*[http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/monuments/index.htm Kamikaze Images - Monuments] (private academic website about the [[Japanese Special Attack Units]])

'''United Kingdom''':
*[http://www.cwgc.org/content.asp?menuid=2&submenuid=10&id=10&menuname=Architecture&menu=sub Architecture] (from the [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]] website)
* [http://www.warmemorials.org/ War Memorials Trust] (charity working to protect and conserve the estimated 65,000 War Memorials in the UK)
* [http://www.ukniwm.org.uk UK National Inventory of War Memorials] (charity working to register UK war memorials)
* [http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/ Scottish War Memorials Project] (public access forum recording all of Scotland's War Memorials)
* [http://www.newmp.org.uk Charity recording North East War Memorials including names and images.]
* [http://www.saltwoodkent.co.uk]

'''United States''':
*[http://www.navymemorial.org United States Navy Memorial] (including Navy Log and naval history information)
* [http://www.vummf.org Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument], (Coronado California)

[[Category:Aftermath of war]]
[[Category:Lists of buildings and structures|Memorials, war]]
[[Category:Lists of monuments and memorials]]
[[Category:Monument types]]
[[Category:Military veterans' affairs|War Memorial]]

[[br:Monumant ar re varv]]
[[ca:Memorial de guerra]]
[[cy:Cofeb rhyfel]]
[[de:Kriegerdenkmal]]
[[fr:Monument aux morts]]
[[ja:戦争祈念施設]]
[[zh:戰爭紀念建築]]

Revision as of 13:20, 14 February 2012

Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia.
The National War Memorial in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Pacifist memorial at Gentioux, France with the inscription 'Cursed be war'
The Monument to the People's Heroes in Beijing, China.
German memorial commemorating World War I.
India Gate, Monument in New Delhi, India
The Yasukuni Shrine in Japan.
The Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand with the Cenotaph out front.
Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Uprising in Poland.
The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, United Kingdom.
Monument to the Women of World War II in London
The Liberty Memorial, National World War I Memorial of the USA in Kansas City, Missouri.

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.

Symbolism

Historic usage

For most of human history war memorials were erected to commemorate great victories. Remembering the dead was a secondary concern. Indeed in Napoleon's day the dead were shoveled into mass, unmarked graves. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris or Nelson's Column in London contain no names of those killed. By the end of the nineteenth century it was common for regiments in the British Army to erect monuments to their comrades who had died in small Imperial Wars and these memorials would list their names. By the early twentieth century some towns and cities in the United Kingdom raised the funds to commemorate the men from their communities who had fought and died in the Second Anglo-Boer War. However it was after the great losses of the First World War that commemoration took center stage and most communities erected a war memorial listing those men and women who had gone to war and not returned.

Modern usage

red rose at war memorial with blurred crosses in the background

In modern times the main intent of war memorials is not to glorify war, but to honor those who have died. Sometimes, as in the case of the Warsaw Genuflection of Willy Brandt, they may also serve as focal points of increasing understanding between previous enemies.

Using modern technology an international project is currently archiving all post-1914 Commonwealth war graves and Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials to create a virtual memorial (see The War Graves Photographic Project for further details).

History

World War I

During the First World War, many nations saw massive devastation and loss of life. More people lost their lives in the east than in the west, but the outcome was different. In the west, and in response to the victory there obtained, most of the cities in the countries involved in the conflict erected memorials, with the memorials in smaller villages and towns often listing the names of each local soldier who had been killed in addition (so far as the decision by the French and British in 1916 to construct governmentally designed cemeteries was concerned) to their names being recorded on military headstones, often against the will of those directly involved, and without any opportunity of choice in the British Empire (Imperial War Graves Commission). Massive British monuments commemorating thousands of dead with no identified war grave, such as the Menin Gate at Ypres and the Thiepval memorial on the Somme, were also constructed. The Liberty Memorial, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a memorial dedicated to all Americans who served in the Great War. For various reasons connected with their character, the same may be said to apply to certain governmental memorials in the United Kingdom (the Cenotaph in London, relating to the Empire in general, and the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh, also with a reference to the Empire, but with particular connections to the United Kingdom, having been opened by the Prince of Wales in 1927 and with the King and the Queen the first visitors and contributors of a casket of the Scottish names for addition within the Shrine).

Pacifist war memorials and those relating to war and peace

After World War I, some towns in France set up pacifist war memorials. Instead of commemorating the glorious dead, these memorials denounce war with figures of grieving widows and children rather than soldiers. Such memorials provoked anger among veterans and the military in general. The most famous is at Gentioux-Pigerolles in the department of Creuse. Below the column which lists the name of the fallen stands an orphan in bronze pointing to an inscription ‘Maudite soit la guerre’ (Cursed be war). Feelings ran so high that the memorial was not officially inaugurated until 1990 and soldiers at the nearby army camp were under orders to turn their heads when they walked past. Another such memorial is in the small town of Équeurdreville-Hainneville (formerly Équeurdreville) in the department of Manche. Here the statue is of a grieving widow with two small children.[1][2] There seems to be no exact equivalent form of memorial within the United Kingdom but evidently sentiments were in many cases identical. Thus, and although it seems that this has never been generally recognized, it can be argued that there was throughout the United Kingdom a construction of war memorials with reference to the concept of peace (e.g. a war memorial in what is now known as Hartlepool (previously West Hartlepool) with the inscription 'Thine O Lord is the Victory' relating to amongs other architecture the 1871 Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences with a frieze including the same words and concluding 'Glory be to God on high and on earth peace'). It seems also to be the case that relatives were after the First World War (and possibly after other subsequent wars) in the United Kingdom and possibly also in France given the option, presumably on the basis that the issue was historically somewhat controversial, of not having the names of their military casualties included on war memorials, notwithstanding that this approach was arguably either in clear parallel with or in support of the form of the memorials erected in the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, these questions being at the time (the First World War) therefore reflected in political controversy.

World War II and later

In many cases, World War I memorials were later extended to show the names of locals who died in the World War II in addition.

Since that time memorials to the dead in other conflicts such as the Korean War and Vietnam War have also noted individual contributions, at least in the West.

In relation to actions which may well in point of fact be historically connected with the world wars even if this happens, for whatever reason, not to be a matter of general discussion (e.g. occupation by Western forces in the 1920s of Palestine and other areas being the homelands of Arabs in the Near East and followed eighty years later in 2001 by the '9/11' raid on New York and elsewhere in the United States) similar historically and architecturally significant memorials are also designed and constructed (vide National September 11 Memorial).

Types

  • A war memorial can be an entire building, often containing a museum, or just a simple plaque. Many war memorials take the form of a monument or statue, and serve as a meeting place for Memorial Day services. As such, they are often found near the centre of town, or contained in a park or plaza to allow easy public access.
  • Many war memorials bear plaques listing the names of those that died in battle. Sometimes these lists can be very long. Some war memorials are dedicated to a specific battle, while others are more general in nature and bear inscriptions listing various theatres of war.
  • Many war memorials have epitaphs relating to the unit, battle or war they commemorate. For example an epitaph which adorns numerous memorials in Commonwealth countries is "The Ode" by Laurence Binyon:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead.
There are none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But dying has made us rarer gifts than gold.
  • The Memorial Flag of the Royal Military College of Canada consisted of a Union Jack on a background adorned with 1100 green maple leaves bearing name of ex-cadets who served in war. The red maple leaves in centre memorialized cadets who made the supreme sacrifice. The Memorial Stairway in the administration building is lined with paintings of ex-cadets who died on military service, which is visited by about 1,000 people each year. The Royal Military College of Canada Gentlemen cadets Roll of Honour remembers ex-cadets who died on military service.
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today

In cemeteries

Many cemeteries tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have an identical war memorial called the Cross of Sacrifice designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield that varies in height from 18 ft to 32 ft depending on the size of the cemetery. If there are one thousand or more burials, a Commonwealth cemetery will contain a Stone of Remembrance, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens with words from the Wisdom of Sirach: "Their name liveth for evermore"; all the Stones of Remembrance are 11 ft 6 ins long and 5 ft high with three steps leading up to them.

Arlington National Cemetery has a Canadian Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the USA who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during the Korean War and two World Wars.

Controversy

Unsurprisingly, war memorials can be politically controversial. A notable example are the controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, where a number of convicted World War II war criminals are interred. Chinese and Korean representatives have often protested against the visits of Japanese politicians to the shrine. The visits have in the past led to severe diplomatic conflicts between the nations, and Japanese businesses were attacked in China after a visit by former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the shrine was widely reported and criticized in Chinese and Korean media.[3]

In a similar case, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl was criticised by writers Günter Grass and Elie Wiesel for visiting the war cemetery at Bitburg (in the company of Ronald Reagan) which also contained the bodies of SS troops.[4] Unlike the case of the Yasukuni Shrine, there was no element of intentional disregard of international opinion involved, as is often claimed for the politician visits to the Japanese shrine.

Soviet World War II memorials included quotes of Joseph Stalin's texts, frequently replaced after his death. Such memorials were often constructed in city centres and now are sometimes regarded as symbols of Soviet occupation and removed, which in turn may spark protests (see Bronze Soldier of Tallinn).

The memorial arch to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who fought in the Boer War, erected at 1907 in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, was called "Traitors' Gate" by the Redmondites and later Irish Republicans, from whose point of view Irish soldiers going off to fight the British Empire's wars were traitors to Ireland. The sharpness of the controversy gradually faded, and while the term "Traitors' Gate" is still in occasional colloquial use in Dublin daily life, it has mostly lost its pejorative meaning.

In Australia, in 1981, historian Henry Reynolds raised the issue of whether war memorials should be erected to Indigenous Australians who had died fighting against British invaders on their lands.

"How, then, do we deal with the Aboriginal dead? White Australians frequently say that 'all that' should be forgotten. But it will not be. It cannot be. Black memories are too deeply, too recently scarred. And forgetfulness is a strange prescription coming from a community which has revered the fallen warrior and emblazoned the phrase 'Lest We Forget' on monuments throughout the land. [...] [D]o we make room for the Aboriginal dead on our memorials, cenotaphs, boards of honour and even in the pantheon of national heroes? If we are to continue to celebrate the sacrifice of men and women who died for their country can we deny admission to fallen tribesmen? There is much in their story that Australians have traditionally admired. They were ever the underdogs, were always outgunned, yet frequently faced death without flinching. If they did not die for Australia as such they fell defending their homelands, their sacred sites, their way of life. What is more the blacks bled on their own soil and not half a world away furthering the strategic objectives of a distant Motherland whose influence must increasingly be seen as of transient importence in the history of the continent."[5]

Reynolds' suggestion proved controversial.[6] Occasional memorials have been erected to commemorate Aboriginal people's resistance to colonisation, or to commemorate white massacres of Indigenous Australians. These memorials have often generated controversy. For example, a 1984 memorial to the Kalkadoon people's "resistance against the paramilitary force of European settlers and the Queensland Native Mounted Police" was "frequently shot at" and "eventually blown up".[7]

With the advent of long war, some memorials are constructed before the conflict is over, leaving space for extra names of the dead. For instance, the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial in Irvine, CA, memorializes an ongoing pair of US wars, and has space to inscribe the names of approximately 8,000 fallen servicemembers,[8] while the UK National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield in England hosts the UK's National Armed Forces Memorial which displays the names of the more than 16,000 people who have already died on active service in the UK armed forces since World War Two, with more space available for future fatalities.

It seems that in at least one country newly added names are dedicated each year at a special eucumenical service in the presence of family members, veterans and invited dignitaries [citation needed]; the historical and political issues that are involved are arguably numerous and complicated; they can certainly be said to include both the issue of whether it makes any historical sense whatsoever that the names of the dead in war can be added in this fashion into what seems to be intended to be an indefinite future while completely ignoring those of the military who died in what is effectively, from the point of view of nationality and politics, the same military actions over the period of all the previous centuries in which the country in question existed, and also an issue which is perhaps even more relevant from a personal and legal point of view, namely whether the relatives and others who should in principle, together with any others involved in point of law, be in some sort of control of the use of the names of the dead for commemorative purposes will necessarily be in accordance with the military decisions taken by the government, or the character of the government itself, it being the case that if they are not they may not wish the names to be included (this citizen right having it seems, on the record, been generally observed at the time of the erection of the war memorials after the First World War in particular in western Europe, if not it seems after the Second World War). This possibility can perhaps be said to relate to the perhaps rather complicated legal position (at least up to the First World War and the creation in the United Kingdom of the Imperial War Graves Commission, and as in record from the classical Roman times) that the bodies of the dead (and consequently also presumably the commemoration of their names?) are not apparently, in legal terms, within the normal law of property.

Famous examples

Africa

  • Egypt

Unknown Soldier Memorial (Egypt)

Americas

Asia

Europe

  • Italy
    • Sacrario militare di Redipuglia
  • Turkey
    • Zafer Anıtı-Turkish İndependence War Glory Memorial
    • Ulus Cumhuriyet Anıtı-Ulus Turkish Republic Memorial
    • Guven Anıtı-Turkish Soldiers Memorial
    • Gelibolu Peninsula (Gallipoli)
    • Korean War Veterans Memorial
    • Turkish İndependence War Memorial

Oceania

See also

References

  1. ^ Coëpel, Philippe (1997). Que maudite soit la guerre. Bricqueboscq: Editions des champs. p. 204. ISBN 2-910138-08-9.
  2. ^ For pictures of the pacifist memorials at Gentioux-Pigerolles and at Équeurdreville-Hainneville and elsewhere see fr:Monument aux morts pacifiste
  3. ^ Japan: Chinese foreign minister on fence-mending visit - Radio Australia program transcript, date unknown
  4. ^ Reagan Joins Kohl in Brief Memorial at Bitburg Graves - New York Times, Monday 6 May 1985
  5. ^ Reynolds, Henry, The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia, 1981, ISBN 0-86840-892-1, p.202
  6. ^ Reynolds, Henry, Why Weren't We Told?, 1999, ISBN 0-14-027842-7, chapter 12: "Lest We Forget", pp.169-184
  7. ^ ibid, pp.177-8
  8. ^ http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ihsLW9amV1E/S4R1kx2Z-vI/AAAAAAAAAhs/F0gIKTbHiTs/s1600-h/northwood_memorial.jpg
  9. ^ http://www.northwoodmemorial.com/
  10. ^ Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument Fund
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Memorials.

General:

  • Sites of Memory (Historical markers, memorials, monuments, and cemeteries worldwide)

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Ireland:

Japan:

United Kingdom:

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