Snippets of War Observations

The USA government has so far never officially apologised for the nuclear bombs dropped on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945.

No Anglo nation has been extensively firebombed in contemporary times from the 20th century to now, except for the United Kingdom.  Pearl Harbour was attacked, but not the mainland of the United States.  Darwin in northern Australia suffered more damage from the Imperial Japanese forces than Pearl Harbour, but not the rest of the Australian continental island.

Most of Europe incurred massive grief, destruction, personal loss and division in the reign of the Nazis under Hitler.

The ensuing battles and efforts to bring Hitler down in mid 1940s Europe ensured further deaths of many civillians caught up in the meeting of Allied and Axis armies.

The Japanese Government has never apologised for the Nanjing massacre in Central China in 1937.

A significant number of residents of colonies of the world wide British Empire in the 20th century fought for the United Kingdom in both the two World Wars. These included residents of India, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya, Canada, Hong Kong and the Caribbean.

American born Japanese volunteered in enough numbers to form the Nissei regiment which saw service in Europe fighting against the Nazis.

Germany has officially and profusely apologised for the gassing by Nazis of innocents in the death camps echoed by Auschwitz.   Not only Jews, but European Gypsies, gays and various nationalities whom Hitler wanted exterminated were gassed.

The extermination of many Armenians in the early 20th century is often under recognised, together with other genocides those in current power refuse to emphasise.

The executions of overseas Chinese in Malaya, the Phillippines and Singapore by the Japanese Imperial Army, when they invaded parts of South east Asia in the early 1940s, illustrated the intense revenge sentiment and behaviour of payback.  These overseas Chinese had sent funds and volunteers to fight against the invasion by Imperial Japan of eastern China from the 1930s.

Many Nazis escaped to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay after the end of World War 2.

Jews fleeing from Europe did find refuge in Shanghai in rhe 1930s.  The invasion of China by Japan caused them to flee again, this time to New Zealand and eastern Australia.

No south eastern Asian nation permanently accepted boat refugees from Vietnam in the 1980s.  They languished in temporary camps mainly in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore until the Western countries offered permanent settlement.

Australia and New Zealand sent troops to Malaya to help British colonists fight communist insurgents in the 1950s.

The extreme cruelty of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia extensively scarred an ancient society and culture of a nation already damaged by the American war in next door Vietnam.

Afghanistan remains a land which has fought off foreign armies, whether those led by Alexander the Great, the Soviet Union or the United States of America.

The rich resources of petroleum, religious tribalism and political interference in the Middle East have proved to be two edged swords.

Southern and Eastern Europe continue to be frontiers where and when Islam, Christianity and Judaism met along fraught and intense historical experiences. 

Did Winston Churchill send Anzac troops to Gallipolli in Turkey in the First World War, preferring to save British troops from a rather hopeless encounter?

The most number of civillians and troops died for Russia in the battles against the Nazis in the second World War.

Commemorations continue to be held in France to remember the sacrifices by the Anglo nations in both World Wars of the 20th century.

Thailand and Japan were the only Asian nations which collaborated against the Allied countries in World War 2, together with Nazi Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

The Australian Federal Government in Canberra for a few years hid the fact of Darwin being bombed by the Japanese. Australia prioritised the attack of Pearl Harbour as being more important in communicating with her own residents during World War 2.

Many surviving Caucasians trapped in South east Asia, as British, Dutch and French colonies were over run by the Japanese Imperial Army in the first half of the 1940s, suffered traumatic experiences as prisoners of war.

South west China became a hub of resistance, defence and preparation for the Chinese besieged by the Japanese Imperial Army in the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.

The invasion by the Japanese Imperial Army in the 1940s sparked off the urge for national independence by several colonies after the end of World War 2.

#yongkevthoughts