Not Just for History Buffs

On my first visit to the The U.S. Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans—I was on a mission. To be precise the very popular Final Mission: The USS Tang Experience, where, inside a realistically detailed mock-up of a submarine interior, I and my fellow visitors were assigned to workstations and given specific tasks to perform. In the space of the next few minutes, we were put through a thrilling special-effects-laden battle exercise, culminating in the malfunction of one of our own torpedoes, which doubled back to hit the submarine. Lights flashed, the floor shuddered, and steam filled the air in the final seconds of the experience.

“Wow, that was fun!” I heard a teenager at a nearby station holler as the lights came back on. A second later, a narrator over the P.A. system explained that seventy-eight crewmen lost their lives on this mission and that those who miraculously escaped to the surface were captured and subsequently tortured by the Japanese.

What we’d experienced wasn’t just a simulation; it was the reenactment of a real event, in which real lives were lost. In the dim light, I wasn’t able to see the teenager’s face as the announcement sunk in.

“It’s not a video game,” noted Keith Huxen, senior director of history and research at the museum, who was heavily involved in creating the exhibit. “It’s a way to try to interact with a twenty-first century audience.”

Apparently the museum has succeeded in doing just that since its first pavilion opened in 2000. Originally called the D-Day Museum, congress passed a resolution in 2004 naming the facility the National WWII Museum. Today the campus continues its dramatic expansion with a new pavilion, slated to open this month. Since its inception, the museum has more than quadrupled in size.  Perhaps the museum’s popularity can be attributed to the countless lessons still to be learned from the war, even for those born decades after its conclusion.

“I find that a lot of people are surprised to find that accidents like that happen in wartime,” explained Huxen of the Tang simulation, which, while recounting a battle that ended in self-inflicted tragedy, was also considered successful in that it sank half a dozen enemy ships in a few hours. “We [the U.S.] had all kinds of problems with our torpedoes,” Huxen said.

Equally thought-provoking is the What Would You Do? interactive exhibit, where noted actors and actresses, projected on a large screen, describe actual wartime scenarios for which difficult decisions had to be made. One scenario details the decision faced by President Roosevelt about whether to bomb rail facilities. On the one hand, destroying the rails was a strategy that would prevent the reinforcement of German troops as the Allies advanced; but bombing major rail facilities in German-occupied cities would also cause thousands of civilian deaths.

The president’s decision becomes the visitors’. Electronic stations situated in the exhibit invite audience members to indicate which choice they’d have made. Then, the president’s ultimate decision is revealed alongside a tally of the audience’s responses. The weight of war is suddenly made much more evident.

Another scenario recounts the story of Edgar Mowrer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for the Chicago Daily News stationed in Berlin during the 1930s whose candid reporting had angered officials of the rapidly rising Nazi party. Mowrer was being pressured to leave and even believed his life might be in danger; but he wanted to stay long enough to cover the annual Nazi Party spectacle in Nuremberg in September of 1933.

Pictured left: Not just a simulation,The Tang Experience, an interactive exhibit, includes the reenactment of a real event in which real lives were lost. Photo courtesy of the National WWII Museum.

A third dilemma describes the decision with which one aircraft carrier’s commander had to grapple: U.S. planes were returning to the carrier from a huge victory at the Battle of the Philippine Sea; but they were flying at night, when standard operating procedure required blackouts on Navy ships. The commander had to decide whether to illuminate the ship so that the flyboys could land safely, thereby placing his ship at risk for attack by Japanese submarines. Again, the audience members must make a choice; and in each case, the terrible intractability of war, the strange compromises and calculations it requires, becomes very personal—more so for some than for others.

“After we opened this exhibit,” recalled Huxen, “I got a phone call from a lady by the name of Diana Belliard. She was Edgar Mowrer’s daughter.”

Her connection to the exhibit didn’t end there.

“Then she started telling me how much her husband enjoyed the exhibit. Her husband was in one of the squadrons that was able to return safely to the carrier thanks to the admiral’s decision.”

The museum’s campus already includes the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, the Solomon Victory Theater, the Stage Door Canteen, the John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion, The American Sector restaurant and Soda Shop, and of course the U.S. Freedom Pavilion. This month, the museum’s newest pavilion will be unveiled.

“The next pavilion will be Campaigns of Courage,” said Huxen. “In December of this year we will open [the exhibit] The Road to Berlin, which tells the story of the American military as we move through North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and then into northern Europe.”

Immersive galleries will recreate actual battle settings and villages–with crumbling walls, bomb-torn rooftops, icy pathways, and a realistic soundscape—accompanied by period newsreels, video histories, interactive kiosks, artifacts, and digital displays. Visitors will walk in the shadow of Normandy’s brutally dense hedgerows and attend a mission briefing with the Bomber Boys for a close-up look inside America’s all-important air strategy.

Toward the end of 2015, The Road to Tokyo exhibit is slated to open in the new pavilion. “Those two exhibit galleries will really be the heart of the [museum] campus,” said Huxen.

There’s also a fascinating addition to the museum’s original pavilion, an exhibit that simulates the train trip that many Americans took when first leaving their homes to go to war.

“That will ultimately be part of the My Journey exhibit,” explained Huxen. “Many Americans had not ever left their hometowns, but found themselves being drafted and going off to a new place. We’re going to tell the stories of about fifty individual veterans from all walks of American life. Visitors will be able to come in and choose to follow an individual veteran through the war. They will be issued a dog tag for one of those veterans with an RFID chip, which will activate interactive displays and allow them to follow what happens to that veteran as they go through the war.”

These new activities add to an already staggering list of ways that visitors can immerse themselves in the history of this period. Beyond the exhibit halls, docents offer occasional guided tours to watch the progress on the restoration of a PT-Boat in the John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion. White Glove Wednesdays provide an opportunity to engage some additional senses as visitors actually strap on some of the equipment worn by soldiers. 

Across the street in the Solomon Victory Theater, the Tom Hanks-narrated “4-D” film Beyond All Boundaries includes animated props and special effects to provide a fully immersive experience. The theater also hosts frequent documentary screenings, often free of charge. The adjoining Stage Door Canteen provides topnotch live entertainment, highlighting the music of the era.

There are days and days of exploration on offer for history buffs. But for those who aren’t history buffs so much as fans of good storytelling, this museum continues to find innovative ways to tell one of the most important stories in history, one rife with lessons for our lives today and for our future.

Details. Details. Details.

945 Magazine Street

New Orleans, La.

(504) 528-1944

nationalww2museum.org

There is so much to do at the museum, it’s advisable to spend some time on the website planning your visit. Be sure to check the events calendar for any of the many special activities planned every week. Ticket lines can sometimes be long, but you can skip to the will-call desk if you buy your tickets online.