Fredericksburg, TX
The early 1840’s saw a surge in the immigration of educated Germans into central Texas. Lead by Baron Ottfried Hans von Meusebach they settled in a series of villages that now form a band across Central Texas from Fredericksburg to New Braunsfel between Austin and San Antonio. Baron Meusebach negotiated a treaty with the local Comanche tribe that allowed both to coexist in the Hill Country. At first the Germans refused to speak English, instead a local dialect “Texas German” developed. The baron founded the town of Fredericksburg in 1846 in a small valley between Baron Creek and Town Creek. Cattle ranching and agriculture (including acres and acres of peach orchards) dominated the local economy until the 1960’s when the ascension of nearby resident Lyndon Baines Johnson to the Presidency of the United States brought the eyes of the nation to the Texas Hill County. The area quickly became a favored weekend destination for visitors from Austin and San Antonio (about an hour away) and most recently has developed a booming wine industry. There are more than a dozen wineries lining Hwy 290 between Johnson City and Fredericksburg, now home to approximately 10,000 residents. It is not particularly a family destination, but rather caters more to the adult tourist with Main Street lined with restaurants, tasting rooms, shops and bars. (Oregonians, think a “Western” Cannon Beach…)
The Old Gillespie County Courthouse (built in 1881, now the public library) anchors the center of Main Street.
Behind the now library is the 1885 county jail, used until 1939.
Stretching east/west to either side of the library is the central commercial district with most of the structures built around the turn of the twentieth century.
Period homes line the blocks immediately north and south of the commercial area. Many are Bed and Breakfast businesses.
Surprisingly, amidst all of this tourism is an outstanding museum complex devoted to the side of World War II that does not receive as much attention as the European theatre, the war in the Pacific. The National Museum of the Pacific War is situated in Fredericksburg because one of the leading figures of the war in the Pacific was a native of Fredericksburg with family roots that go back to the first settlers, Admiral Chester Nimitz.
National Museum of the Pacific War
The complex consist of three different locations, starting with the Nimitz Hotel on Main Street. The Nimitz family settled in Fredericksburg in 1855 and purchased the Nimitz Hotel in 1860. The hotel dominates Main Street with its’ unique “steamboat” tower.
The family managed the hotel until 1926 until it was sold and then in 1964 it became a museum honoring Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Admiral Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg in 1885 and lived there until leaving to attend the Naval College in 1901. Mementoes of his early life form the core of this part of the museum.
This is the smallest building in the complex. On the back side of the same block sits the crown jewel of the museum complex, the National Museum of the Pacific War.
The museum is designed to present in chronological order the events the lead up to the hostilities in the Pacific and then walks the visitor through the war in a series of galleries that combine multi-media presentations, actual photographs, videos and artifacts in an effort to educate the visitor about the causes of the conflict as well as the actual events of the war. It is a stunning, emotional walk through a dark time in American history and there is no way that I will be able to do justice to the experience. Throughout the path through the Pacific War banners along the top of displays note corresponding events in the European theatre. The first series of galleries set the stage for the very complicated history that lead to the decisions that created the war. Walk with me…
A darkened gallery presents in a stunning visual display the attack on Pearl Harbor with sound and video played on wall behind an actual miniature Japanese submarine captured during the attack.
When the presentation ends and the lights come up, the miniature submarine stands in stark relief against the blue video display screens.
The Doolittle Raid was a dramatic air strike in 1942 created as an effort to raise morale on the American side and to bring the horror of war directly to the Japanese people by a surprise bombing of Tokyo. Up till that point in time, the Japanese Home Islands had not felt any direct impact of the war. Lead by Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle, sixteen B-25 bombers were launched from the carrier USS Hornet without fighter escort and directed towards Tokyo. The planes did not have enough fuel to return to the Hornet so the plan was to drop bombs over Japan and then land in China. 15 of the 16 planes crashed in China and the other landed in Vladivostok, Russia. Sixty-nine of the original eighty crew members survived and eventually returned to American forces. The raid did minimal physical damage to Japan but more than fulfilled the goal of a psychological victory.
Actual artifacts from those on the bombers are on display next to the actual B-25.
The exhibit is organized in chronological order, unfolding the major events of the war in galleries that are separated by year.
The atmosphere throughout is hard to describe, it’s very quiet except for the occasional commentary in individual galleries and some of the more moving experiences are displays that contain actual weapons of war accompanied by video commentary from men who used those weapons detailing their personal experience.
The ubiquitous “Jeep” was originally designed by American Bantam in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the first one was delivered to the Army on September 23, 1940. The Army called it a “General Purpose Vehicle”, or “GPV”, which quickly evolved into “Jeep.” The vehicle was very popular because of it’s’ usefulness in all conditions and was used in all theaters of World War II. After the war surplus Jeeps were able to be purchased throughout the US (and the Bentz family of Billings, MT had one!)
A gallery devoted to the media propaganda in the war includes the notorious “Tokyo Rose”.
Conditions on mainland Japan deteriorated but the Japanese government mistakenly thought that the Allied demands for an “unconditional surrender” could be negotiated for more lenient terms. In early 1945 school was cancelled for all children in grades above the 6th grade and they were put to work in the war factories.
As the Allied effort gained momentum more and more ships were able to document successes. This is a panel from the USS Hugh W. Hadley, with a small Japanese flag painted for each airplane shot down. There are 25 flags on this section, 23 of which occurred in just 1 hour and 40 minutes on May 11, 1945, when the Hadley served as a picket ship off Okinawa.
The refusal of the Japanese government to accept the terms of the unconditional surrender proposal led to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
An actual photograph of “Fat Man”, the bomb that fell on Nagasaki.
An interesting display notes that at the time that the atomic bombs were dropped Japan still had millions of men under arms throughout the East Asian theater. They had shown every inclination to continue the brutal struggle and this, combined with the Japanese government’s refusal to the Allied surrender terms, led to the decision to use the atomic bomb.
The Emperor’s actual radio address to the Japanese people plays over an intercom while words appear, super-imposed on a picture of the actual written speech.
This is one of those “not miss” experiences if you visit the Texas Hill Country.
Next up: Heading South to the Border
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