Shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 12, a pair of buglers will blow Echo Taps across the UW抯 World War II Memorial Plaza by the flagpole north of 揜ed Square.� It will be a solemn start for something called 揂 Day of Celebration.� But the event being celebrated, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, is bittersweet梐n occasion for bowed heads as well as raised glasses. A keynote address by former Speaker of the House Tom Foley, �51, �57, is the day抯 highlight, but a memorial ceremony had to come first.
揥e put the flagpole ceremony at the head of the day,� says Carl Walske, �44, chairman of the organizing committee, 揵ecause it didn抰 seem appropriate for the survivors to be celebrating without remembering the ones who didn抰 come back. There were quite a bunch, you know.�
The gathering will then move from Memorial Plaza to the HUB for a program of WWII-vintage jazz, some socializing, a luncheon and Foley抯 address. The day will conclude with a reception at Clark Hall.
Initially, the 揇ay of Celebration� was going to be merely that. 揥e started it, above all, to have some fun together,� Walske says. That objective remains, but as planning progressed the committee decided that the anniversary warranted something more substantive as well. The results include not only the flagpole ceremony but a three-month WWII lecture series.
揥e thought, 慦ell, we should have some serious talk here, too, not just have a pleasant lunch together,挃 says Walske. 揂nd when we began to think about the things that might fit into such a talk, the subject matter became much too voluminous to handle as an event in a day. So we broke off the lecture series, and got some enthusiasm from the professors over in the history department. So that took a life of its own.�
Although the series started in May, there are single tickets left for each of the remaining lectures. UW History Professor Quintard Taylor presents 揟he War and Race: A Changed America?� on June 14. UW History Professor John Findlay speaks Tuesday, June 28, on 揟he War and the Transformation of the Pacific Northwest.� On Tuesday, July 12, History Professor Emeritus Otis Pease will discuss 揟he Meaning of World War II for Americans Who Fought in it.� History Professor Wilton Fowler continues the series on Tuesday, July 26, with 揟he War as a Diplomatic Revolution for the United States.� All lectures start at 6:30 p.m. in Kane 130.
It抯 no exaggeration to call WWII the definitive event of the 20th century, says Walske, who served on a Navy destroyer in 1944�45. In retrospect, virtually everything else appears to be either a prelude or a consequence.
揟he �30s were ominous,� he says, 搘ith the rising threat of the dictatorships, plus the Depression. Then we moved into the war, and we all moved in together. It was a very special experience, and it encompassed everyone, whether they were on a destroyer or home in a factory working. It was a momentous thing, and it lasted quite a while, and after a very bad beginning at Pearl Harbor, we weren抰 100 percent sure how it was all going to come out. So it was something to leave an impression,� he says.
For more information about the WWII Lecture Series or 揂 Day of Celebration,� visit .