What Have We Done? 2

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Today is the official 75th anniversary of the beginning of WW2. It is celebrated world wide with strong countries conquering smaller ones and the murdering of peoples whose only crime is what they believe. Guess we have learned nothing in 75 years.

shalimar

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Alternate start dates...

Or it started in '31 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Or in '35 with the Italian invasion of Abyssinia
Or in '37 with the start of the Japanese/Chinese war
Or in May of '39 when Japan and the Soviet Union started fighting
Or on Dec 7, 1941 when all the wars merged into one big war.

Whenever it started, I agree with the sentiment.

Or...

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

It started THOUSANDS of years ago when the first greedy "King/Warlord/Chieftain" decided he wanted what some other "King/Warlord/Chieftain" had. If you believe in that "infallible" judeo-christian "book" it all started with Cain and Able. Humanity has a VERY strong greedy streak, we all want what someone else has; without paying the price for it. In the case of most leaders, they are more than willing to pay the price with the lives of their fellow countrymen; so long as it doesn't affect them personally.

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

A little levity here

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

There once was a chieftain who made war with the neighboring chieftains, one by one. Each time he conquered a neighbor, he would annex the neighbors land and people. He then store his current throne in the rafters of his grass hut and take the throne of the conquered chieftain and sit on it to convince the people that he ruled them.

One day after conquering about a dozen chieftains, he was sitting on his throne when the hut caved in and the stored thrones fell on him and killed him.

Moral: When you live in grass houses, don't stow thrones.

Groan … ;o)

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann

Spanish Civil War

Or perhaps July 17, 1936, the official start of the Spanish Civil War.

RAMI

Y'know, I had relatives that

Y'know, I had relatives that fought in it, and I can't remember _anyone_ 'celebrating' the anniversary. Remembering, yes, but not celebrating.

What they remembered was fighting so that people could have a choice, and not have one thrust upon them. (Like fighting so that the French anthem wouldn't be the Horst Wessel song)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

history says

that ww1 started on july 29 1914 and ended nov 11 1918

ww2 started 1939 and ended 1945

so...

what are you talking about cause I'm confused

Start of WWII

Valeentine lists several conficts that preceeded and led up to WW II. Sept 3 1939 was when Nazi German invaded Poland, and Britan and France, finally woke up and responded to German aggression. A major war began in Europe. But there was war in the Far East Japan attacking China/manchuria, several years before. Mussolini returned glory(not) to Italy by attacking Abbysinia/Ethiopia. Russia , German and Italy practiced and honed their talents inSpain from 1936-1939.

RAMI

WW2

shiinaai's picture

We celebrate/commemorate neither the beginning nor the end of WW2. Our people were among the worse affected. The following accounts are very grim. If you don't like depictions or murder and rape, don't read. If you want to read it, highlight the texts in between. This is to avoid people accidentally reading what they don't want to read.

1) Before WW2, we were lorded over by the British, where we were servants on our own homeland.
2) When WW2 started, we begged the Japanese to come and liberate us.
3) When the Japanese arrived, the ones that came were the assholes who spent a lot of time torturing the Chinese in China.
4) So they thought they could do the same shit in our country too. Most that suffered were the Chinese, because for some reason, the Japanese had it in for the Chinese. But the others weren't spared either.
5) Food was scarce. Any grain produced in Malaya was shipped to Japan and China, but they were bombed by Allied bombers.
6) The Japanese continued to send our harvests to Japan. Leaving us and the Japanese army here starving.
7) That made the Japanese soldiers' mood even worse and they started harrassing locals even more, even rapes were common. My grandpa had to dig a hold under his house to hide his daughters whenever the Japanese soldiers came to their village on patrols.
8) Because of this, the people (mostly Chinese) formed the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (aka 3 Star communists), sponsored by the Allied countries.
9) Now we have a new problem, because the MPAJA was even worse than the Japanese, and the allies turned a blind eye on their doing while still providing support.
10) The MPAJA did everything the Japanese soldiers did and worse. If the Japanese soldiers came, they would at least send a messenger to inform the locals that they were coming, which alerts the villagers to hide their daughters. My grandpa said the Japanese knew this happened but they didn't push the issue. Only when it came to hiding radios that they became demons.
11) The MPAJA were local men and women. They came unannounced. Killed a few villagers, dragged a few women and shoot their husbands just for fun. Anyone who gave food to the Japanese would have their wives or daughters raped in front of their eyes, the shot or slaughtered. After that, head of the family would be either slaughtered or put up as firing target. Same goes if the locals didn't give food or women to the MPAJA.
12) Most of the locals who actually fought the MPAJA were actually on friendly terms or at least indifferent to the Japanese, probably because they consider the Japanese rightful rulers by right of conquest. But after the Japanese surrendered, they were labelled as terrorists, racists and their deeds likened to mass murder and ethnic cleansing by the MPAJA and the British. Many were sentenced to death after the Japanese surrendered.

If one were to ask the elders which overlords they would choose. Many would say the Japanese and the MPAJA were both bad, but they would choose the Japanese any day. Of course this depends on where you ask. In chinese populated areas, they worship the MPAJA although the MPAJA murdered their own neighbours, because the Japanese were way worse to them. Malaysians tried not to think about it, because if we do think about it, we'll end up with so much resentment, we would start WW3 just so we can do the same as the Japanese and the MPAJA.

So many misguided

With apologies to Hope and anyone else I might offend. That infallible christian book you mention has a commandment in it that say's something like this, Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself. You don't kill people just because you disagree with them or even because you want something that belongs to them,that they don't wish to part with. As for when it all started? Well we got go back even further than some have already suggested. How about too when the angle Lucifer Wanted to set his throne about above the god that created him.

Many, many people suffer from the same problem and it has been true throughout the ages. They can't separate the truth from the facts. It is a fact that many countries like the U.S. Russian and Japan have engaged in long protracted wars. But when the smokes clears the truth of the matter is that hate and greed are the underlying reason for them. I already covered the love commandment, so I'll add this one. Thou shalt not covet they neighbors wife or that which belongs to him. That's a simplified translation by the way.

Having said all that when we learn to love one another first. And to be happy with have and willing to work for the things we want to have, then the wars will end and there will be a true peace that all people and nations can enjoy. Peace should never be defined as the absents of War.

Thanks to all and have a great day. Joe

Thanks BC....hope I got it right this time...lol

Hey Joe

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

I could be offended by many things, but, NOT by someone suggesting love instead of war.

I do not believe in many of the myths in that judeo-christian book, but, there are a few good ideas there too. If you believe that the myth about Lucifer and the whole pride and downfall is in that book, maybe you should read it again? The Lucifer downfall myth was written in the middle ages, hundreds of years after the last of the stories that make up the "Bible".

Still, count me in as a lover, not a fighter.

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

Celebration OF "Start of War" vs "End of War"

I am not aware of any "celebration" of Dec 7& 1941, WW2, nor of June 1951,(N.Korea invading S Korea), But I do think that commemorating them and remembering those who perished because of them is fitting and proper.

December 7th

Each year at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, there is a commemoration of the sneak attack by the Japanese military forces there. I'm not sure how many years back, maybe on the 50th anniversary, there was a remembrance where the Pearl Harbor survivors and former members of the Japanese military, the pilots that had flown the attack that day, were brought together. For many, on both sides, it was a time where they could meet their former enemies, face to face, and forgive each other, to reconcile. Others, could not, or would not.

We remember our dead, we commemorate them with monuments, and ceremony and holidays. Yet, we repeat the same things, over and over again, that lead us into the insanity of war. It is a wonder that we have lived so long as a species.