No, Holly, it doesn't mean "Oh, hooray....
 
I did not live through it, but I was born during it (WW II) and I did
grow up among men and women who had been there, in europe, north africa,
the pacific campaign, etc.  My high school Spanish teacher was a survivor
of the march to Bataan, and a man I worked with after high school was one
of three men who survived from the second UDT (Under Water
Demolition) team trained by the US Navy; he participated in every major
landing of the Pacific Campaign.
 
I went to school with Japanese children who spent the war in American
concentration camps.
 
One of the books in my reference collection has an annotation on the
front flyleaf describing an event concerning the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria.
 
The long and short of it, for me, is that there are many avenues to war,
but once begun, there is only one outcome.  Win or lose.
 
>From the tales told me by the men and women who lived to tell the tale;
of the campaigns in North Africa, through Italy, France, and Germany;
through the Pacific Campaign and on to the mainland of Japan, there are
these differences:
 
The Japanese military personnel were unwilling to admit defeat and
the Japanese government refused to adhere to the prisoner of war
conventions accepted by the european nations at war.
 
These are telling differences.
 
Say what you will about the inhumanity to man of nuclear war during it's
inception, and I will not argue against you. But I will not defame the
memory of those who died or survived by inveighing against an act which
ended the suffering of so many.
 
Jack C. Thompson
United States Navy (1964-68)
Thompson Conservation Lab.
Portland, OR
 
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 On Mon, 23 Jan 1995, Holly Trimper wrote:
 
> [log in to unmask] (rich jones) writes:
>
> >The 50th anniversary is the last monumental date that veterans
> >of WWII have to commemorate the event that defined and transformed their
> >lives. Doesn't this fact call for retrospection through their eyes, one last
> >time?
>
> One last time for what?  "Oh hooray, we blasted them Japs real good"?  Or do
> you mean one last time to reflect on the significance of WW2 in general and
> the impact of nuclear technology on the present day world?
>
>
> Ow, I feel the heat.
>
> Holly Trimper
> [log in to unmask]
>