Chaplain’s Corner
1 November 2015
The Rev. Art Turnbull, Branch 15 Chaplain
Lest we forget! Words for November and for every month of every year.
Words never to forget.
Seventy years ago the battles of World War Two drew to a halt. That last year was an agony of human misery. War was fought, sometimes hand to hand, sometimes with new atomic force, but on a scale as never seen before. An Allied supreme effort was launched to confine and reduce the German Nazi forces. The Pacific campaign was closing in on Japan, island by island, jungle by jungle, sometimes hand to hand in desperate fights.
For the civilians on the fronts of war whether in villages or cities, there was never before seen such massive massacres and sacrifices. The people of Holland were being starved on purpose. Only the efforts of British and Canadian air force flights dropping food packages kept that population alive. Farm land in all of Europe was torn asunder. The citizens of those nations were being bled to death. So much had been sacrificed to the war effort that those “at home” were impoverished. It did not matter whose side you were on. All were caught in the same net.
Then came the end of that great and awful time of war. Germany surrendered as the last of her teenaged boys died by the thousands on the frontlines. The date was 8 May 1945, a day to remember. Then the United States made a huge decision for the world at war in the Pacific. Two cities were sacrificed on the Japanese territory, victims of the new weapon of awesome proportions, the atom bombs. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, a day to remember.
Those who keep the records, keep the score, tallied up the numbers. What cost is war? The cost in human lives was horrendous. The military killed scored 16 million Allied and 8 million Axis soldiers, sailors and air persons dead. The civilian deaths from direct war causes from 1939 to 1945 tallied 49 million on every continent and island of this planet Earth. And we ask about costs, never understanding the value of each and every human soul.
The war was over. Now came the hard parts. To make a new world order, to implement the ideals and to mitigate the damage already done, called for new visions. The United Nations was implemented and came quickly into being on 24 October 1945. It established a Security Council weighted by the heavies of the USA, USSR, UK, France and China. A new map of the world was drawn up, not necessarily following lines of reality that would blend into peaceful coexistence. The aftermath of such decisions drive the conflicts of today. The reparations upon Germany and Japan were civilized and led to these two countries becoming industrial economic powers in the new order of the world. Capitalism competed with Communism for the attention of people who simply wanted, and still do want, to live in harmony.
Yet we still need to ask just what did the end of the mighty conflict settle? Can we count the days in any year since 1945 that peace – the absence of war- reigned? Can we assess the success of peace keeping and peace making efforts with the related costs as we look upon a world of have and have nots? Has the Cold War really cooled? Does the little person, the struggling family, the elder of today on any land or place or language have a better hope for those yet to come upon the human race?
We answer, “Yes!” We answer “yes” to any such questions; to answer “no” would mean we have forgotten. We people of every place and type, we must say “yes”. And to do so we need to all be mindful of our mortal status, seeking always the God greater than ourselves, individual and collective.
“Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?
who may abide upon your holy hill?
Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right,
who speaks truth from the heart.”
(from Psalm 15 verses 1 and 2, NRSV Bible, Christian literature)