Does Memorial Day restrict the American perspective of war?

Growing up in a family having a who grandfather served in World War II and a father who was in the special forces, I learned from a young age never to point the American flag at the ground. It was a sign of disrespect to the country and the people.

It was usually Memorial Day weekend, the first time of the year when I would remember seeing the stars and stripes out. I’d be flying a flag from a flag pole or sticking it into the ground sometimes to the sirens and sounds of a parade marching through the streets. The unofficial opening to summer, I’ve looked at the intended meaning of the first three day holiday of the summer to actually serve a bigger purpose.

What is the bigger purpose?

According to history.com the definition of Memorial day is as follows:

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2021 will occur on Monday, May 31.

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

Much of that is inline with my childhood memories, but one thing I hadn’t been aware of was that it was first ‘celebrated’ in 1968 and had not become an official federal holiday until 1971 — coincidently during the war in Vietnam and four years before it would end. The website goes on to include:

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

Hold my flag. This is when I begin to ask questions.

How does this seemingly straightforward holiday no longer seems so straightforward? Firstly if the origins of it are to be from the American Civil War, why did it take over a century for Americans to hold a single celebration? The answer I believe is found in my second point — in a country where holidays and time off is rare of course we will wholeheartedly embrace a day off. But have we as Americans been a bit too embracing of this day to be blinded by the actual significance of it?

The audio documentary I am working on has made me take off blinders and analyse the simplest of historical understandings in different ways. I don’t mean to destroy or desecrate the ideals and beliefs people hold near and dear, but I do mean to encourage others to look at the history we knew not as fact but as a version of what happened that is chosen to be remembered and presented to us.

Therefore, it means other versions of the past also exist and incorporating them into our current day understanding is essential to an inclusive history and understanding how to do better in the present and future.

So let us practice this exercise of revising history for our beloved Memorial Day. This holiday on this day is only celebrated in the United States, but does that necessarily mean it should only celebrate Americans? It was intended to honour the American Civil War but we have established the evidence for this is weak considering it took a century for this honouring to occur. Another weak bit of evidence is the reasoning that this was because it claimed more lives than any other conflict — this is not completely accurate.

A quick fact check shows just over 620,000 American soldiers died during the Civil War. That is in fact the largest number of American military casualties in history, but it did not claim the most amount of lives of any military conflict the US was engaged in.

At the time of the institution of Memorial Day it was the very conflict the US was engaged in that was claiming the most amount of lives — all lives not just military ones (words matter).

R.J.Rummel who has spent his career studying data to reduce violence and war made low, middle, and high estimates for the different demographic groups involved in the war in Vietnam.

He estimated that the side in which the United States fought, joined by armed forces of South Vietnam, South Korea and Vietnamese civilians totalled somewhere between 429,000 and 1,119,000.

It’s worth looking at all the numbers as they include the opposition that died fighting for North Vietnam and those in other countries that died due to the conflict overrunning the borders in Laos and Cambodia.

When most Americans think of the numbers of casualties related to this specific war, they only concern themselves with the 58,000 American soldiers who died. But the reality is, the number is much greater if we look at it from the perspective of ‘most lives lost in conflict.’

When Memorial Day was created, it is possible it was a distraction from the losses suffered in Vietnam and to further distract us Americans into believing we were honouring the American Civil War losses. Keeping the focus on America has resulted in a holiday that focuses so much on ourselves we forget to honour or ignore the others who fought beside Americans.

With your bbq heating up hopefully surrounded with family and friends I’d like to leave you with this — revising history does not mean if we let go of our previous understanding of history we have to do away with the hotdogs, burgers, or even the parades, sirens, and most certainly giving up a day off. It does not mean hiding the stars and stripes and most certainly does not mean pointing any flags into the ground — my grandfather would probably come back down from the heavens himself to hit me over the head with that flag! But to me, what revising history involves is being willing to say we did not learn all the versions of history that existed before, but we are willing to now.

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