The New York Times

This may seem an odd time for Canada to build a museum devoted to war. Its per capita military spending has dipped so low in recent years that to transport aid to the victims of the tsunami that swept over South Asia in December, its armed forces had to rent heavy-lift aircraft from Russia. But on May 8, the 60th anniversary of V-E Day, the Canadian War Museum, which has been around in one form or another since 1880, will officially open the doors to its grand new home and a greatly expanded collection: military artifacts that span the ages from early conflicts among indigenous peoples to Canadian participation in recent peacekeeping operations in the Balkans and Afghanistan. As the most ambitious architectural project in this reserved Victorian capital in nearly 20 years - and one designed, it just so happens, by a Japanese-Canadian interned during World War II - it is a deeply evocative museum that honors the country's fallen soldiers but also warns of the horrors of battle.