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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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In Our View: A Poignant Reminder

Memorial Day time to honor those who died in service to nation, and their kin

The Columbian
Published:

In many ways, the poignancy of Memorial Day arrived early this year.

President Obama’s visit last week to Vietnam and Japan called to mind the sacrifices of thousands of Americans of past generations. Thousands of Americans who died in conflicts in far-flung lands. Thousands of Americans whose contributions remain painful reminders of the United States’ long-held mission to fight tyranny around the world.

Obama’s trip to Vietnam served as a reminder of the 58,000 Americans who died as this nation’s military defended South Vietnam against communist forces. His visit to Japan echoed with some 400,000 American deaths during World War II, many of them while battling Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater. Along the way, it was notable that both nations now are close economic partners with the United States.

The visits provided some context for Memorial Day, which we celebrate today in acknowledgement of those who have died while serving in the armed forces of the United States. The holiday arose out of the ashes of the Civil War, starting with scattered commemorations in Southern states and being adopted in the North as Decoration Day in 1868. That is when the Grand Army of the Republic, a group of Union soldiers, established a time for decorating the graves of war dead with flowers. The tradition of decorating the graves of the dead had long been a tradition, but the fact that some 350,000 Union soldiers and about 300,000 Confederate soldiers had perished during the Civil War lent a new cultural significance to the practice.

Following World War I, in which another 116,000 Americans perished, the holiday was established in all the states, and in 1971 it became entrenched on the final Monday of May. Along the way it has grown to be associated with barbecues and parades and the unofficial start of summer, but it always remains tinged with a solemnity reserved for those who sacrificed for their nation. As Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale reputedly said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said some 200 years later, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

That silence still resonates. During the Civil War, Union soldiers died for the preservation of the nation. During World War II, American fighters died for the preservation of civilization against tyrants and despots. During World War I and the Korean War and Vietnam and the Gulf War and the War on Terror, Americans died while answering their nation’s call. Regardless of how modern-day observers might feel about the necessity for those wars, the sacrifices were born of a noble desire to serve and protect. As the gatekeepers of USMemorialDay.org have written: “Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.”

Therefore, we also honor those families who have sacrificed. The loss of a soldier tears at the fabric of a family and a community and a state, affecting people who in their mourning can be consoled by the hope that such unfathomable suffering is somehow for the benefit of this grand experiment that is the United States.

Such suffering demonstrates the complexity that accompanies Memorial Day. Unlike most holidays, it is not merely a time for celebration, but rather an occasion for reflection and contemplation and appreciation. And it is one that remains inherently poignant.

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