80 years since VJ Day

Today marks 80 years since the announcement by Emperor Hirohito, in the first time a Japanese monarch had ever broadcast on the radio, of his country's surrender to the Allies, although the formal signing of the surrender did not take place until 2 September.

The Pacific War was just as ugly and brutal as the European one. Japanese war crimes are not as well known as German ones in the West, mainly because they happened to non-white people. The Allies may have been the good guys, but there was a strong strain of racism in their propaganda - not to mention their treatment of Japanese Americans.

It says a lot that Japan is a changed country, a cultural and technological powerhouse, viewed much more positively than 80 years ago. Because there is such a thing as magnamity in victory and we applied it to Japan - not to mention Germany and Italy.

At the end of the day, after a war is over, you have to live with these people again unless you destroy them completely - at massive cost to your own souls for one thing. Something that many people would do well to remember.

Unfortunately, with rising militarism around the world, I fear we might see another massive war in my lifetime.

I hope and pray this is not the case.