# Why doesn't the U.S. have a WW2 holiday? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979 "2013-01-22T04:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/1 "2013-01-22T04:19:05Z")
MLK Day got me thinking about holidays in general, and I started wondering why the U.S. never adopted a World War 2 based holiday such as V-J Day. I know Veteran’s/Armistice Day started being observed soon after World War I. Was there any serious effort to have a holiday commemorating World War II? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/2 "2013-01-22T04:34:08Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > MLK Day got me thinking about holidays in general, and I started wondering why the U.S. never adopted a World War 2 based holiday such as V-J Day. It is a holiday in Rhode Island, just fyi. But we don’t celebrate the end of any war, even the American Revolution. Why would WWII be more special? We have Veterans Day and Memorial Day. That covers all wars. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/3 "2013-01-22T04:34:18Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > MLK Day got me thinking about holidays in general, and I started wondering why the U.S. never adopted a World War 2 based holiday such as V-J Day. I know Veteran’s/Armistice Day started being observed soon after World War I. Was there any serious effort to have a holiday commemorating World War II? The name of Armistice Day was changed in the US shortly after WWII more or less for that reason, so it could serve double-duty to commemorate WWII veterans (and veterans of other wars). There’s also National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which I think is a legal holiday, but not a federal holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/4 "2013-01-22T04:51:27Z")
We also didn’t used to have national war memorials. There was the Tomb of the Unknowns, and that was considered sufficient. Then came the unusual circumstances of the Vietnam Conflict, and the memorial that turned out to be so surprisingly eloquent. So Korean veterans demanded one for their police action, and now we’ve backfilled with a World War II memorial of very curious symbolism and a design Albert Speer would have admired. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/5 "2013-01-22T05:02:02Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > We also didn’t used to have national war memorials. There was the Tomb of the Unknowns, and that was considered sufficient. There’s the WWI Memorial in Kansas that was built in the 20’s, and the Marine Corps Memorial from the 50’s. I disagree that the Vietnam Memorial started the trend. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/6 "2013-01-22T12:39:13Z")
I’m not sure those are quite _national_ memorials, though. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/7 "2013-01-22T13:13:55Z")
I’m pretty sure the one in Kansas City is the “National WW I Museum”, although the monument is the “Liberty Memorial” Both are well worth a visit- the museum’s on par with any elsewhere in the world in terms of layout, collection, and general excellence. (I say this having been to the British Museum, the military museum at Les Invalides, and the Imperial War Museum) ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/8 "2013-01-22T13:31:28Z")
If we celebrated the end of each “war” we fought we’d barely have time to work. Although I would support celebrating the end of the war against our own people (aka the drug war). ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/9 "2013-01-22T14:04:41Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > There’s the WWI Memorial in Kansas [snip] What?!?!?! Them theivin’ Jayhawks done bushwhacked us again and stole it from Missouri? That’s going to light up the [Border Wa](http://www.millersparanormalresearch.com/Pages/Border_War.htm)r again! Seriously, the Liberty Memorial (dedicated to the fallen in the Great War) is located in Kansas City, **Missouri** ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-the-u-s-have-a-ww2-holiday/647979/10 "2013-01-22T15:50:13Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > We also didn’t used to have national war memorials. There was the Tomb of the Unknowns, and that was considered sufficient. Then came the unusual circumstances of the Vietnam Conflict, and the memorial that turned out to be so surprisingly eloquent. So Korean veterans demanded one for their police action, and now we’ve backfilled with a World War II memorial of very curious symbolism and a design Albert Speer would have admired. Meow. While calling the Korean War a police action is keeping in concert with President Truman’s early language, it is more than a bit snarky to the men and women who served and died in the Korean War. And I think the “Germanic” complaints of the WWI memorial are overplayed, but ymmv, and it apparently does.