A Sailor’s World War II Memories Flood Back : Names MacArthur, Nimitz Live On in Central Texas

World War II veterans who visit this Central Texas town and the nearby community of Brownwood encounter a turn-back-the-clock world.

Auditoriums in both towns have huge floor-to-ceiling maps of World War II battles in the Pacific.

In Fredericksburg, the map illustrates in light and sound every major Pacific naval battle of the war; in Brownwood, a similar map depicts all the war’s important Pacific land battles.

The maps are at the Adm. Chester Nimitz State Historical Park at Fredericksburg and at the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom at Howard Payne University in Brownwood.

Adm. Nimitz and Gen. MacArthur commanded America’s forces in the Pacific during World War II.

Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg in 1885. The Nimitz Museum is in the steamboat-shaped Nimitz Hotel, built in the 1850s by his grandfather, Charles Nimitz.

The admiral’s grandfather loved the sea. He was a sea captain before he migrated to Texas with a colony of Germans in 1846. That is why he designed his hotel to look like a steamboat. The town is named after King Frederick of Prussia.

At the Nimitz Museum, a flood of memories fills the mind of every former sailor who served in the Pacific from 1941-45. I know. I was one of them.

It is all here. Pearl Harbor. Midway. The Solomon Islands. The Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Palau, Philippines and Tarawa. The myriad of battles on atolls and in the islands are recalled in photographs, film footage and taped reminiscences of those who were there.

The museum is filled with World War II Navy artifacts and memorabilia of Japanese fighting forces. There is a constantly changing bulletin board with news of veterans groups and ship reunions.

Japanese Tea House

Outside the restored old Nimitz Hotel is a peace garden and Japanese tea house, paid for with contributions from veterans of the Japanese Imperial Navy. They conducted a fund drive throughout Japan and collected $100,000 for the project.

Seven craftsmen from Japan came to Fredericksburg and spent two months building the tea house and peace garden in 1976.

“The Japanese Navy veterans said they did this because of their admiration for Nimitz as one of the greatest admirals in history,” said Bruce H. Smith, 42, superintendent of the Texas park.

Another feature of the museum is the History Walk of the Pacific War, an outdoor, mile-long trail bordered by World War II Japanese and American airplanes, tanks, weapons, conning towers, ship pilot houses and other relics from most of the major battles from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay.

War Dead Commemorated

There is a wall of plaques in memory of those who lost their lives during the war--in aerial combat, on land or aboard ship.

Seminars and ship reunions are held at the museum from time to time. This past April, for example, there was the observance of the 45th anniversary of Adm. Nimitz’s successful secret mission by a squadron of P-38s to seek out and shoot down the plane carrying Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto over the Japanese-held Solomon Islands.

As part of the Yamamoto Mission Retrospective, the eight surviving P-38 pilots and the sole-surviving Zero pilot in the engagement, Kenji Yanagiya of Tokyo, met and recalled the incident at the Nimitz Museum.

It was an important event. Yamamoto was the man who had orchestrated his nation’s attack on Pearl Harbor and was chief of the Japanese Imperial Navy when shot down and killed April 18, 1943.

Douglas MacArthur gave his approval to establish the Academy of Freedom that carries his name at Howard Payne Southern Baptist University in Brownwood.

As Robert G. Mangrum, 40, academy director and chairman of the school’s History Department explained, the academy serves a dual purpose--a museum and classrooms.

Like the Nimitz Museum, the building honoring MacArthur is unusual in its architecture. Cathedral-like, the academy is housed in an 1890 college hall with a roof of white spires and a futuristic facade of glass archways.

A heroic 8-foot statue of Gen. MacArthur dressed in his military uniform stands outside the main entrance.

In the building are a series of huge rooms: the Douglas MacArthur gallery, filled with MacArthur memorabilia; Constitution Hall, which houses a giant map depicting the Pacific Theater of World War II and MacArthur’s campaigns.

Independence Hall Replica

One room is an exact replica of Independence Hall; another recreates a great hall in an English castle. Magna Charta Hall has a mural showing King John signing the historic document at Runnymede in 1215.

Mediterranean Hall features a sweep of ancient history. It is reached through a massive temple entrance, guarded by four 14-foot reliefs of Pharaohs and flanked by tablets of Egyptian hieroglyphics. There is a Hall of Christianity presenting a capsule history of the religion in a 32-foot-tall mural.

Ancient History

English literature and history classes are conducted in Magna Charta Hall; American government classes are staged in Independence Hall; ancient history is taught in Mediterranean hall. Classes for the 30 juniors and seniors enrolled each year in the interdisciplinary honors program are also conducted at the academy.

In 1962, Guy Newman, president of the school, conceived the idea of the honors program representing man’s quest for freedom and American ideals. “He believed Douglas MacArthur’s life best represented the ideals of America and dedicated the academy to him,” Mangrum said. “MacArthur gave his blessing but never visited the academy. He died shortly after it opened.”