Sydney - Canberra, War Memorial

I'm choosing not to post pictures of most of the things I have written about, simply because I want you to picture them in your mind as you read rather than relying on my picture to do it for you. However, if you would like to see pictures after reading this, there are some in my facebook album titled "Canberra - The Capital".

Walking into the War Memorial I didn't expect anything like what came from it... It is truly one of a kind...

At one point I was looking at some items and things from WW2 and then I heard fighter jets and guns and immediately ducked and covered my head and then realized it was on the speakers. I had to consciously remind myself that I was in a memorial and that this wasn't really happening right now. I can only imagine those who have actually fought in battle what the sound of a jet too close overhead or fireworks must do to them... The displays, the stories, the recovered items, the dioramas... they just suck you in to the point that you forget where you are, who may be watching, or what your plans are for later. 

The one simulated experience I did was in a bomber... When you walk in to the bomber the floor starts shaking/vibrating and the screen in front of you starts playing as though you are looking out the windshield. There are voices over the speakers as though you are on this bomber with several others and the head person is telling you all the plan. The bomber's floor shakes/vibrates more and the engine gets louder as you take off and gain height - all the while looking out the "windshield" and listening to the plan. Next thing you know your bomber is dropping bombs over Germany and you see them out the windows as they light up orange and red. Next thing you know the floor of the bomber opens up (a clear portion of the otherwise metal floor has a screen underneath it that turns on at this point) and all you can see below you is bomb after bomb exploding as the bomber you are on drops them... You fly away from the bombs as the red and orange glow fades into the distance and the floor closes up again. The engine noise quiets a bit and you land and as the engine stills and goes quiet the floor stops shaking/vibrating. The screens shut off... and just like that... it's over.

The other simulated experience I did was during the Vietnam War. You're standing there looking at the center of the exhibition - a Huey helicopter and life-size models of the soldiers and their weaponry landing in Vietnam. Behind the helicopter are 2 large white screens creating a corner. Next thing you know one of the screens light up and starts counting down. When it hits 0 the lights in the exhibition go out except for a few strategically placed around the helicopter and the light coming from the screen playing footage of soldiers landing in Hueys being dropped in Vietnam for operations. You feel a force of wind coming from somewhere unknown and you can barely hear yourself think over the sound of the helicopter blades and the soldiers yelling. You forget where you are, what you were doing, and you don't notice who else is around. You notice the blades of grass being pushed to the ground by the intense wind, you wonder if you should cover your ears to protect from the deafening roar of the helicopter, you take note of the extremely young age of these men unloading from the helicopters and preparing for war. After some time the blades quiet, the wind stops, the lights turn on, the screens shut off... and just like that... it's over.

After standing there for a moment and pulling myself back into the present, I walked away from these with some quite unsettling thoughts and feelings... But there are other people though, the ones who were actually in that bomber or unloading from those helicopters during the war who may or may not have been able to walk away and if they did, they walked away with much more than unsettling thoughts/feelings... they walked away with haunting images, experiences, and memories that will forever be with them.

When looking at some of the recovered items you can see all the bullet holes or the wear and tear and you can't help but ask yourself a million questions. What happened to the person who owned that item? Who was waiting for them to return home? Were they ever reunited? Did they know death was coming when it came? Did they die alone? Did they want to die? Were they hungry? What cries, thoughts, or secrets were written in that diary? Was that canteen on someone when it got shot 12 times? Did that hat belong to a dad? How young was the boy carrying around that small tin case? 

The dioramas of different war scenes were so real that you could almost see the scene playing out in your head even though the figures were still. I just wanted to reach in and wipe the dirt from the young boys face, give the guy slouched over a sack my drink of water, help the man struggling to carry his friend to safety... Scene after scene after scene... The realness never went away... I was just sitting there looking in from the outside... But those men, those boys... They were once really in there, really fighting, really struggling, really dying... 

Or what about the wall of pictures of the 1,787 Australian prisoners of war who died during the Sandakan Death March?! Sitting there in this room with 1,787 faces of people who suffered beyond belief staring back at you... As you look at each face you want nothing more than to be able to save them... but it's too late. Or what about the recovered items from the atomic bombs dropped on Japan... Some of the items are so warped that they look unrecognizable or unreal. What about the people that were around when those bombs were dropped? If it did this to clay and metals, imagine what it did to the people? I understand why the US chose to drop the bombs, but that doesn't make the innocent people's suffering, trauma, and death okay or easier to comprehend... 

Then there is the Hall of Valour. Soldier upon soldier pictured with their medals displayed beneath their photo and a description of their contributions. All I could think when walking through was that I hope they died knowing they weren't dying in vain but that they would be remembered forever for their bravery. 

I could keep writing, but just what I've written here has already taken me back to all those overwhelming thoughts and feelings from the 2 times I visited the War Memorial. Everything I saw was crammed into 3 hours and there was just still so much more I could have seen, learned, experienced, read. If ever I visit Canberra again, the War Memorial will be my first stop when I get there. 

After the War Memorial I walked half of the ANZAC Parade, which is a very significant road in Canberra where at one end is Mount Ainslie and the War Memorial and at the other end is the Parliament House. (You can see this road in a couple different pictures in the main Canberra post.) ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, who fought in WW1. Along the ANZAC parade on either side are memorials dedicated to Australian and New Zealand people who lost their lives in war. Each memorial is massive and tells quite the story. Unfortunately, I was only able to do half of it due to pure exhaustion but I got to see The Australian Hellenic Memorial (WW2, Greece - photo 1), The Australian National Army Memorial, The Australian National Korean War Memorial (photo 2), The Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial (photo 3), The Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, and The New Zealand Memorial (gift from the New Zealand government).