John Konopak,
I understood your personal context as a veteran (Vietnam)
including your family history.
Because of so, asking a foreigner such as Japanese to have
US national memorial day of War as "reflective day" has
a very specific, delicate meaning.
For example, your first mail addressing to me says,
"Enjoy Memorial Day--but DO remember, please!"
But, how can I as a foreigner Enjoy your Memorial Day?
What is the meaning of *but DO remember*?
For me, these kinds of expression are still very strange.
Maybe, your personal context as a veteran (Vietnam)
including your family history is accounting everything.
As Mike pointed out, this is international forum where
there is much cultural variation and where we discuss the quite
different issues. So, I think we should avoid the expression
and the topic about each nation's Memorial days of Wars.
The opposite case will make the meaning more clear.
If I send you the line like "Have a reflective (Japanese)
Memorial Day of War (for dead Japanese)!", it will be very
strange and making too delicate meaning in this context.
Let' s go back to the appropriate issue here without
referring to "Reflective Memorial Day".
Naoki Ueno
NIER, Tokyo