    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [May 29, 2004]
    [Pages 942-945]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Dedication of the National World War II Memorial
    May 29, 2004

        Thank you all very much. I'm honored to join with President
    Clinton, President Bush, Senator Dole, and other
    distinguished guests on this day of remembrance and celebration. And
    General Kelley, here in the company of the
    generation that won the war, I proudly accept the World War II Memorial
    on behalf of the people of the United States of America.
        Raising up this memorial took skill and vision and patience. Now the
    work is done, and it is a fitting tribute, open and expansive like
    America, grand and enduring like the achievements we honor. The years of
    World War II were a hard, heroic, and gallant time in the life of our
    country. When it mattered most, an entire generation of Americans showed
    the finest qualities of our Nation and of humanity. On this day, in
    their honor, we will raise the American flag over a monument that will
    stand as long as America itself.
        In the history books, the Second World War can appear as a series of
    crises and conflicts, following an inevitable course from Pearl Harbor
    to the coast of Normandy to the deck of the Missouri. Yet, on the day
    the war began and on many hard days that followed, the outcome was far
    from certain.
        There was a time in the years before the war, when many earnest and
    educated people believed that democracy was finished. Men who considered
    themselves learned and civilized came to believe that free institutions
    must give way to the severe

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    doctrines and stern discipline of a regimented society. Ideas first
    whispered in the secret councils of a remote empire or shouted in the
    beer halls of Munich became mass movements. And those movements became
    armies. And those armies moved mercilessly forward until the world saw
    Hitler strutting in Paris and U.S. Navy ships burning in their own port.
    Across the world, from a hiding place in Holland to prison camps of
    Luzon, the captives awaited their liberators.
        Those liberators would come, but the enterprise would require the
    commitment and effort of our entire Nation. As World War II began, after
    a decade of economic depression, the United States was not a rich
    country. Far from being a great power, we had only the 17th largest army
    in the world. To fight and win on two fronts, Americans had to work and
    save and ration and sacrifice as never before. War production plants
    operated shifts around the clock. Across the country, families planted
    victory gardens, 20 million of them, producing 40 percent of the
    Nation's vegetables in backyards and on rooftops. Two out of every three
    citizens put money into war bonds. As Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby said,
    ``This was a people's war, and everyone was in it.''
        As life changed in America, so did the way that Americans saw our
    own country and its place in the world. The bombs at Pearl Harbor
    destroyed the very idea that America could live in isolation from the
    plots of aggressive powers. The scenes of the concentration camps, the
    heaps of bodies and ghostly survivors, confirmed forever America's
    calling to oppose the ideologies of death.
        As we defended our ideals, we began to see that America is stronger
    when those ideals are fully implemented. America gained strength because
    women labored for victory and factory jobs, cared for the wounded, and
    wore the uniform themselves. America gained strength because African
    Americans and Japanese Americans and others fought for their country,
    which wasn't always fair to them. In time, these contributions became
    expectations of equality, and the advances for justice in postwar
    America made us a better country.
        With all our flaws, Americans at that time had never been more
    united. And together we began and completed the largest single task in
    our history. At the height of conflict, America would have ships on
    every ocean and armies on five continents and, on the most crucial of
    days, would move the equivalent of a major city across the English
    Channel.
        And all these vast movements of men and armor were directed by one
    man who could not walk on his own strength. President Roosevelt brought
    his own advantages to the job. His resolve was stronger than the will of
    any dictator. His belief in democracy was absolute. He possessed a
    daring that kept the enemy guessing. He spoke to Americans with an
    optimism that lightened their task. And one of the saddest days of the
    war came just as it was ending, when the casualty notice in the morning
    paper began with the name Franklin D. Roosevelt, Commander in Chief.
        Across the years, we still know his voice. And from his words, we
    know that he understood the character of the American people. Dictators
    and their generals had dismissed Americans as no match for a master
    race. FDR answered them. In one of his radio addresses, he said, ``We
    have been described as a nation of weaklings, playboys. Let them tell
    that to General MacArthur and his men. Let them tell that to the boys in
    the flying fortresses. Let them tell that to the marines.''
        In all, more than 16 million Americans would put on the uniform of
    the soldier, the sailor, the airman, the marine, the coast guardsman, or
    the merchant mariner. They came from city streets and prairie towns,
    from public high schools and West Point. They were a modest bunch and
    still are. The ranks were filled with men like Army Private Joe
    Sakato. In heavy fighting in

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    France, he saw a good friend killed and charged up the hill determined
    to shoot the ones who did it. Private Sakato ran straight into enemy
    fire, killing 12, wounding two, capturing four, and inspiring his whole
    unit to take the hill and destroy the enemy. Looking back on it 55 years
    later, Joe Sakato said, ``I'm not a hero. Nowadays they call what I did
    `road rage.' '' [Laughter]
        This man's conduct that day gained him the Medal of Honor, one of
    464 awarded for actions in World War II. Americans in uniform served
    bravely, fought fiercely, and kept their honor even under the worst of
    conditions. Yet they were not warriors by nature. All they wanted was to
    finish the job and make it home. One soldier in the 58th Armor Field
    Artillery was known to have the best-kept rifle in the unit. He told his
    buddies he had plans for that weapon after the war. He said, ``I want to
    take it home, cover it in salt, hang it on a wall in my living room so I
    can watch it rust.''
        These were the modest sons of a peaceful country, and millions of us
    are very proud to call them dad. They gave the best years of their lives
    to the greatest mission their country ever accepted. They faced the most
    extreme danger, which took some and spared others for reasons only known
    to God. And wherever they advanced or touched ground, they are
    remembered for their goodness and their decency. A Polish man recalls
    being marched through the German countryside in the last weeks of the
    war, when American forces suddenly appeared. He said, ``Our two guards
    ran away. And this soldier with little blonde hair jumps off his tank.
    `You're free,' he shouts at us. We started hugging each other, crying,
    and screaming, `God sent angels down to pick us up out of this hell
    place.' ''
        Well, our boys weren't exactly angels. They were flesh and blood,
    with all the limits and fears of flesh and blood. That only makes the
    achievement more remarkable--the courage they showed in a conflict that
    claimed more than 400,000 American lives, leaving so many orphans and
    widows and Gold Star Mothers.
        The soldiers' story was best told by the great Ernie Pyle, who
    shared their lives and died among them. In his book ``Here Is Your
    War,'' he described World War II as many veterans now remember it. It is
    a picture, he wrote, ``of tired and dirty soldiers who are alive and
    don't want to die; of long darkened convoys in the middle of the night;
    of shocked silent men wandering back down the hill from battle; . . . of
    Jeeps and petrol dumps and smelly bedding rolls and C-rations . . . and
    blown bridges and dead mules and hospital tents and shirt collars
    greasy-black from months of wearing; and of laughter too, and anger and
    wine and lovely flowers and constant cussing. All these it is composed
    of; and of graves and graves and graves.''
        On this Memorial Day weekend, the graves will be visited and
    decorated with flowers and flags. Men whose step has slowed are thinking
    of boys they knew when they were boys together. And women who watched
    the train leave and the years pass can still see the handsome face of
    their young sweetheart. America will not forget them either.
        At this place, at this memorial, we acknowledge a debt of long-
    standing to an entire generation of Americans, those who died, those who
    fought and worked and grieved and went on. They saved our country and
    thereby saved the liberty of mankind. And now I ask every man and woman
    who saw and lived World War II, every member of that generation to
    please rise as you are able and receive the thanks of our great Nation.
        May God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:09 p.m. on the Mall. In his remarks, he
    referred to former Senator Bob Dole, national chairman, World War II
    Memorial Campaign; and Gen.

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    P.X. Kelley, USMC (Ret.), chairman, American Battle Monuments
    Commission. The Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day proclamation of May 26 is
    listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.