Often considered the 'Forgotten War', The memorial, dedicated in 1991, is notable as one of the first Korean War memorials erected in the United States. The artist won an invited competition. After much contemplation about the meaning of war memorials, Mac Adams, the artist decided to create an Anti- War memorial or a "Peace Memorial'.
Inspired by a poem that speaks of death as absence and loss, the memorial features a 15-foot-high black granite stele with the shape of a Korean War soldier cut out of the center. Also known as “The Universal Soldier,” the figure forms a silhouette that allows viewers to see through the monument to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island. At 10 am every July 27th, the anniversary of the time in 1953 in New York when hostilities ended, the sun lines up so as to shine through the memorial and illuminate a commemorative plaque on the ground.One of the three tiers at the base of the monument is decorated with mosaic flags of countries that participated in the United Nations-sponsored mission. The plaza’s paving blocks are inscribed with the numbers of dead, wounded, and missing in action from each of the 22 countries that participated in the war. Almost half a million people were wounded in the war and nearly 140,000 died.
