The Pacific

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. - The Bible

I’m not normally a big fan of war movies.

Last night, after Rob and I finished watching The Pacific DVD, an HBO mini series, we found ourselves sitting on the sofa, astounded and moved. The Pacific is a 10-episode TV series about World War II, focussing on what happened in the islands in the Pacific (between Japan and Australia). History is not exactly my strongest subject, so this was particularly educational for me. I hadn’t realise that a lot more (at least in Western media) has been written or screened about WWII in Europe than WWII in Asia, and that the war in many ways was a lot uglier and horrific in the East. As the Japanese army refused to surrender in all of the islands which Japan occupied then (which the American army had to invade, one by one, in order to get to mainland Japan), the Americans had to fight every inch of the occupied territories and kill every Japanese soldier in the long drawn war.

I don’t normally like movies or TV with too much violence, and I generally find war stories a bit too macho (and dull in terms of colour – jungle colours). But I have to admit that I really liked the Pacific, not least because it was educational in terms of what happened in history, but more so because it showed in a real way the horrors of war, both the highs and lows of humanity, and how war, no matter how justified it is, is really bad for us – the world.

The Pacific does not glorify war, so even as it got to the point of the Japanese surrender, there was no outright display of jubilation (though there was cause for it, as the war had ended). As for the Marines who had been fighting for years, losing fellow men in their platoons, they found themselves wondering what was next – they had known in their prime a life of repeated, senseless violence, desperate survival, death and loss in the most unimaginable gruelling conditions, and now they had to go back to “normal life”, when life could never quite be normal again.

No doubt this mini series has made me appreciate our time of (relative) peace, but it has also reminded me not to forget those who are still at war in so many places. Again, it’s one of those things that can so easily overwhelm us (and in a way, it should, as the problem is so serious and so vast), but we should not lose heart. Let’s urge our government leaders and all those in high positions to work towards real, lasting peace, and in our own lives, work hard towards reconciliation.