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Parks
mark historic events on home front during WWII
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday,
October 21, 2007
From Wire Reports The Associated
Press
WASHINGTON – Has
Ken Burns' PBS miniseries The War gotten you
interested in learning more about the experiences
of Americans during World War II?
JIM COLE/The Associated
Press
 Ken Burns' documentary The War tells of Americans'
experiences during World War II. A few national
parks commemorate and interpret history made in
the United States during the war.
The National Parks Conservation Association, a
nonprofit that works to protect and enhance the
park system, has listed national parks that commemorate
and interpret historically significant aspects
of life in the United States at that time.
Three of the sites are in California. Manzanar
National Historic Site was one of 10 camps used
during the war to detain Japanese-Americans. Today,
Manzanar offers tours, movies and exhibits to help
understand life within the camp. Details at www.nps.gov/manz.
Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial
commemorates a 1944 explosion in which 320 men
were killed while loading explosives on outgoing
ships. More than 200 of the victims were black.
According to the National Park Service Web site
www.nps.gov/poch, no new safeguards were put in
place to protect workers on the docks following
the blast, and 258 black seamen refused to return
to their dangerous jobs. The workers were imprisoned,
and 50 were court-martialed, dishonorably discharged
and sentenced to jail. The incident, now viewed
as a prime example of racial injustice in the military,
helped put pressure on President Truman to end
segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
Visitor services at the Port Chicago Memorial
are limited, but Congress is considering legislation
to elevate Port Chicago to a full unit of the park
system, according to Andrea Keller, a spokeswoman
for the National Parks Conservation Association.
The Rosie the Riveter-World War II Home Front
National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif., preserves
stories about the challenges and opportunities
presented to women on the home front during the
war. The Web site www.nps.gov/rori describes a
self-guided tour that visitors may take.
A fourth site being highlighted by the National
Parks Conservation Association is the Tuskegee
Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama, which
tells how Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University)
was selected to train black pilots and others for
the U.S. military in World War II. The site offers
exhibits and films about the famed airmen. Details:
www.nps.gov/tuai.
The Associated Press
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