Facts, judgement, justice, and
On December 7, 1940, the Empire of Japan — without even a declaration of war, bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, killing 2,403 persons. This is well known and has been propagated sufficiently in Hollywood.
What is not quite as propagated is the invasion of the Philippines that occurred almost simultaneously, leading to its fall and the defeat of the US Army that defended it. This, like all battles, was bloody, violent and inhumane.
However, what followed was
known as the Bataan Death March, wherein the US prisoners of war were marched, whilst suffering from varied levels of malnutrition, 85 miles to the port of Cabanatuan. This involved virtually no provision of food or water and was accompanied by random murders at the pleasure of the Japanese Army.
When the strongest and the luckiest reached the destination, they were starved, murdered and used in forced labour. In fact, 120,000 of them were shipped to the mainland of Japan as slaves. In 1945, this very country that had committed these atrocities got two atomic bombs dropped on them, more specifically the industrial cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The war ended because of this act. Four million lives were saved, based on the estimates of mortality that would have resulted if the allies had attempted the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Peace returned, tyranny was defeated, and the world celebrated.
On May 27, 2016, President Barack Obama apologised on behalf of the United States government for dropping the atomic bombs. Ironic isn’t it? There’s more.
In 1941, Hungary aligned themselves with Nazi germany and participated in the early stages of the invasion of many peaceful nations in Europe, and some not so peaceful countries like the Soviet Union. Hungary was subsequently defeated and became occupied by Soviet troops until the late 1980s.
In modern-day Hungary, you are bombarded by the history of their resistance movement that combatted the Soviet occupation of Hungary, particularly the 1956 revolt. However, another irony is that on no billboard or museum is it stated that Hungary joined hands with germany, the most brutal nation in history and picked the fight with the Soviet Union first.
History, logic, justice and politics are not really what we would hope for. This is not just for military conflicts, it is also relevant to criminality and justice. And it is not always many years before facts are forgotten. Sometimes, it can be less than a decade or even a few months.
Jamaica’s election day in 1980 was the most important