The museum wasn't that large, though not that Daniel really expected it to. Many of these major sorts of buildings were converted from buildings that had been part of Nimitz Air Force Base when the US military was actively using Mieni as one of its many military bases. The command center and radar tower was now set up to be the main offices for Horizon Labs on Mieni and included all their labs and equipment to study both Animalian biology and the new animals that had been found Mieni. The attached control tower was now the main headquarters terminal for civilian air traffic controllers, mostly provided by those who had volunteered from Lyre and Animalia's airfield to take shifts on Mieni. The barracks had been converted into the main hotel part of the resort. The World War II museum was no different.
While Nimitz Air Force Base was active, the US did maintain one squadron's worth of aircraft, though they were all split between maritime patrol, search and rescue, and air superiority. Many of them had been older and propeller driven aircraft and only a few of the very early jets that didn't need as long an airstrip as more modern aircraft did. In this, Daniel knew that by even 1960, Nimitz Air Force Base had been on the base closure list because the base could no longer easily accommodate the aircraft being used and that operations to defend the area would need to be shifted to larger islands elsewhere. He'd long figured that the only thing that kept the base "active" was some political reason.
"So... what did they hold in here?" Mandy asked to him as they looked up at the square building and the large square opening that had once been a metal folding door, but had been replaced by a more ornate glass front which filled the original door opening and had "Mieni Atoll WW2 Pacific Theater Museum" painted in gold letters above the glass doors that were slightly taller than she and Daniel were.
"Likely the stores of bullets, rockets, and torpedoes that they would arm the aircraft used at Nimitz Air Force Base while it was active," Daniel answered, "and as an armory, likely all the ammunition and actual arms for ground personnel that were here. In that sense, it's actually quite understandable that they put the museum here, given that the base was established shortly after WW2 and hence why they named it after a Naval officer."
"Did you fight here?" Mandy asked to him, concerned and wondering if Daniel had any old memories that might worry him.
"I don't recall there actually being fighting here in WW2," Daniel answered, "Though... I was also in Europe during the war. I was earmarked for transfer to the Pacific in 1945, but THAT was after Hitler died and the Nazis finally called it quits. However, when Japan surrendered, my transfer turned into an honorable discharge and a profound "thank you for your heroism" from General Bradley."
"Does anything haunt you?" Mandy asked, her voice clearly concerned.
"Some things... but unlike some of the veterans from more recent conflicts... who were hurt by dumb political leaders from BOTH parties," Daniel said slowly, "my war, despite all its horrors, was a just war. I will never question Roosevelt's desire to help Britain and the commitment America made to prevent the world from falling to Hitler or Tojo. My chief issue here... is see what they have for the museum and that they don't muddy the memory of those who served in the Greatest Generation."
Mandy blinked and then nodded. In that she did understand. Daniel didn't talk endlessly about his service, but he had told her enough to giver her some sense that World War II was a clear and obvious battle of good versus evil. It was understandable and on some levels Mandy even agreed with things that Daniel said about World War II. However, she'd never been that big on history before, and was thus rather willing just to go along with Daniel who as a World War II veteran who became an Animalian. He was, in a sense a door to the past and Mandy felt she could learn a lot from him.
They entered to find that the inside of the armory had been opened up into a large single room. The walls had been covered and supported to allow for pictures and informative panels on the war in the Pacific theater. Taking up the center of the center of the space was a large raised platform and glass case. Inside the case was a wooden model of the USS Pennsylvania as it looked in its WW2 configuration. It was the model that the two walked up to first. Daniel marveled at the craftsmanship that had been put into it. He wondered on who had built the model and the two moved around it to find out. There were a pair of raised panels and Daniel figured they had talked about the model.
The panel on the right side of the ship, which they approached first actually talked about the history of the ship with a brief history of the ship. It read: "Launched in 1915, the USS Pennsylvania spent World War I in home waters as there were not enough tankers to keep the battleship fueled for a trip to Britain to join the Allied fleets involved in the blockade of Germany. Between the wars, it flew the flag in various ways before being transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1922 before returning to New York in 1929 for its first overhaul. There its AA armament was updated before joining the Battle Fleet in the Pacific, based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Damaged in the Pearl Harbor raid, the Pennsylvania was transferred to San Francisco where the ship would ultimately spend 1942 in another overhaul that would last until the beginning of 1943. In 1943 the USS Pennsylvania would serve in the shore bombardment of Japanese held positions in the Aleutian Islands and the Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. In 1944, the Pennsylvania would serve in the Battle of Kwajalein and Eniwetok, which both showed the lessons learned from earlier campaigns in 1943. It participated in shore bombardment duties off of Saipan and Guam as well as off of Angaur Island. Her last service in 1944 was the participation in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where the Pennsylvania, along with other battleships that had been at Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941 crossed the T of the Japanese forces in the Surigao Strait, though the Pennsylvania was unable to fire for fear of hitting other US warships. In the last year of the war, the Pennsylvania continued in the shore bombardment role, seeing service off the coast of the Philippines and off of Okinawa. It survived a kamikaze strike in the South China Sea and a torpedo attack at Okinawa. World War II ended while the Pennsylvania was undergoing repairs, and given its age by that time, the Navy ultimately agreed that the warship was no longer necessary. It would participate in Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll as a test of what nuclear weapons would do a major warship. By this point, it had been stripped of major internal fixtures and weaponry and was ultimately scuttled by the US Navy outside Mieni Atoll, which at the time was geographically grouped with Kwajalein at the time on February 10, 1948. In the course of her service with the US Navy in WW2, the US Pennsylvania earned eight battle stars and served with distinction. Today, her hull lays off the coast of Mieni, two of her 14-inch guns are now kept outside the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, and her bell is on display outside of the Wagner Building at Penn State University. May her memory never fade and the men who served on her never be forgotten."
"A pretty lengthy history," Mandy commented.
Daniel nodded and they continued on. They moved from that panel around the displayed model of the Pennsylvania in a counter clockwise direction. The panel on the right of the ship, based on the direction that Mandy and Daniel had been looking in, had the ship's history. The next panel at the end of the display case, and both Dog Animalians could look at the panel and then down the length of the model, which looked like it was sailing out toward the door. That panel showed a map of the Pacific and had red dots and dates for when the Pennsylvania had been at that location. It also included the list of awards that the ship earned in WWII and then a small map that showed where the ship was in relation to Mieni Atoll. The moved on to the next set of panels as they circled the model did have what Daniel had been looking for. Apparently a wood working factory in California had built the model and was donated to the museum, which made Daniel smile.
From there they then looked to the wall panels that followed the course of the Pacific War in WW2, which included background information, maps, diagrams, and photos that chronicled the course of the conflict between Japan and the Allied powers, principally the US. It went in a pattern that started on the west side of the building and went chronologically until they got to 1945 on the east side. It was interesting and respectful. No gory photos were used and there was no real blatant hatred being sewn in the presentation. In that sense it was fair and actually quite balanced, which Daniel had come to respect.
The thing that was the most interesting, though, were the various segments that focused on what was known about Mieni Atoll at the time in what was known as "Mieni's War." Apparently, Japan had furnished Mieni as a secondary/reserve base for their forces on Kwajalein with the idea that if the bases at Kwajalein came under attack or were occupied, Mieni could back up the defense of Kwajalein, and that it was their work that would ultimately set the ground work for Nimitz Air Force Base after the war. However, construction was incomplete by the time the US attacked Kwajalein leaving Mieni practically abandoned. The US Navy sent destroyers to scout the atoll, which was the first mention of it in US Naval records, which then grouped Mieni as part of Kwajalein, a distinction that remained until well after the atomic bomb tests and the scuttling of the USS Pennsylvania. After the war, the US took control of Mieni and early on used it as a patrol and defense base against possible Soviet aggression into the Pacific as the WW2 alliances turned into the Cold War and the Air Force named its base on Mieni after Admiral Chester Nimitz as the final connection between Mieni and WW2 in the Pacific.
"So... no POWs were here?" Mandy wondered.
"Likely too small for a POW cam and too well away from areas where Americans fell into Japanese hands in the war," Daniel guessed, "much of the rest is probably just ghost stories and the like. Though, given the reports of all the new species that have been found here... it's probably a good thing the war missed Mieni with regard real military action on the atoll."
"Interesting," Mandy then commented, "So, what do you think?"
"I think they did a good job," Daniel commented, "It'll be interesting to see how they do. Most museums like this aren't on tropical islands... but then, with the wreck so close that might attract people..."
"But wasn't the ship to be in fairly deep water?" Mandy wondered.
"From the reports on the news... I think so," Daniel answered, "but not super deep. It's like the ship is still well on the shelf that surrounds these atolls before plunging deeper. The thing that I don't know for sure is whether or not it's deep enough down that exploring the ship would be impossible for tourists... If it's shallow enough for that, they might do well... if not... then I wouldn't know."
Daniel then gave Mandy a small smile, "but in the end this was about the museum and seeing how accurate it was... and it did quite well."
Mandy couldn't help but seeing him smile. She liked it when Daniel smiled. Privately, she also liked the small visit. She also felt like she'd learned something new and that was also good as far as she was concerned.