The new exhibit contains maps, photos, films and more. /National D-Day Museum photo

Published: Nov/Dec 2001

With the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor this year, you can revisit the day that lives in infamy at the National D-Day Museum.

On Dec. 7, the museum is opening its first major expansion, “D-Day Invasions in the Pacific,” in celebration of the contributions made by veterans and home-front workers to the Pacific Campaign of World War II. The exhibit follows the amphibious invasions of the war as it was fought across the Pacific, featuring a combination of interactive exhibits, photos, maps, oral histories and short films.

One of the first displays visitors see in the exhibit is of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Visitors walk through a maze of large photos and graphics depicting Japan’s aggression in China, the plans to attack Pear Harbor, as well as the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Southeast Asia.

The grand opening will include 20 events over four days, beginning Dec. 6. One of the highlights will be a morning “Pealing of the Bells” on Dec. 7 in which bells will be rung throughout the city in memorial of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Also that day will be a Pacific Victory Parade that will pass in front of the museum. Military vehicles will carry Pacific Campaign veterans accompanied by marching and musical units.

Other events will include a gathering of Pacific Campaign veterans, panels discussions with noted historians and World War II experts, a USO dance, Pacific War film festival, a memorial service, a re-enactment of a WWII Pacific landing on the shores of New Orleans’ Lake Pontchartrain and port visits by U.S. Navy vessels.