The lost art of reconciliation

Awful truth #11: A people have the right to honor their warriors and war dead, both the winning and losing sides. 

            Unknown (speech to kamikazes)

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”

            Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

War is an ugly, brutal business, and yet foes can admire and respect each other’s courage, tenacity, and sacrifice.  This transcends the cause of the conflict, the resolve to destroy an enemy, the bloodlust of combat.  One of my favorite examples of this occurred during Charles de Gaulle’s visit to Stalingrad in 1944, after the Russians defeated the Germans in one the bloodiest battles of World War II. 

As he toured the wrecked city, de Gaulle was heard by an accompanying Russian translator to say, “What an amazing people.”  The pleased translator responded, “Yes, of course, the Russians.”  “No,” de Gaulle responded.  “A formidable people, a very great people…to have pushed this far.  I don’t speak of the Russians.  I speak of the Germans.” 

Examine a WWII era map of Europe, and you’ll see what he meant.  Compare the more than 1,000-mile distance between the border of Nazi Germany and the City of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad).  Imagine millions of Russian soldiers and two brutal winters between the two cities, and that a country, essentially fighting a four-front war, indeed fought their way there and almost captured Stalingrad.  Under the circumstances, it was indeed amazing they got that far—and that de Gaulle had the wherewithal to admit it.  Here is a link to a map: http://levswar.weebly.com/uploads/2/7/8/5/27857003/4242092_orig.jpg

When a  battle is won or lost, or a war itself is over, a people have the right to honor their warriors and war dead.  This is true for both the winning and losing sides, regardless of the cause for which they fought.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Just as there was nothing with de Gaulle’s homage to a current enemy. Even during a battle, a temporary truce may be called to allow each side to collect its dead and wounded.  Yes, war is terrible, but a sense of honor and humanity has its place.  Perhaps these tenacious remnants of virtue amongst the maelstrom of war and its inherent atrocity are the seeds of eventual peace and reconciliation.   

Without reconciliation there is no hope of a meaningful peace. Reconciliation is closure, which is as important for nations as it is for individuals and their personal traumas.  A true path to reconciliation is when honoring their warriors is not begrudged of one’s enemies.  More importantly for reconciliation and a lasting peace are combatants who respect their former foes.  The thoughtful victors admire their enemy’s courage, martial prowess, and sacrifice.  They understand that both sides were comprised of soldiers who did their duty on behalf of mankind’s folly.  The wise of both sides understand that after a war, the strife is over.  Must be over…or it is to be repeated once again, perhaps more terribly.         

There is evidence of such magnanimity throughout history.  In France, there are American cemeteries where our fallen soldiers are buried.  There are also German cemeteries in France, where German soldiers lie in eternal slumber.  The fact the French allow both friend and former foe to remain buried unmolested is a profoundly beautiful thing.  It respects the dead, regardless of the side on which they fought, and permanently memorializes—literally in stone—an ethos that is in dire short supply today: Ill-will among the living must be buried with the dead who perished because of it.  This is the only way for a war to truly end and remain ended.     

In South Africa there exist, in what was once known as Zululand, statues of King Cetewayo, an African who fought the British.  I’m confident the British who fought the Zulu impi would not take offense at statues in his honor.  At Isandlwana, the site of Cetewayo’s crushing victory over the British, there are memorials for both sides, British and Zulu.  The Mexicans to this day respect and honor their French Foreign Legion foes whom they defeated at the Battle of Camarón.  The Turks likewise honor their former enemies at Gallipoli.  The Mexicans, Turks, Zulus, British, and French chose ways of dealing with these painful pasts that are truly world-improving.  Those who instead wish to refight past wars and desecrate memorials to the dead could learn from their gracious high-mindedness.     

The Confederacy lost the American Civil War.  Both North and South have their cemeteries and memorials—and it is okay that these exist in memory of both sides.  Northern generals respected and later studied the military prowess of their Rebel foes.  Located in the North, Gettysburg’s battlefield contains memorials and cemeteries for both Blue and Gray.  After the war, military bases were named after Confederate generals.  Whatever our modern sensibilities, we should not bemoan that the citizens of the North and South erected statues and took other means to honor and remember their warriors.  The Mongolians revere Genghis Khan; Southerners admire Robert E. Lee.  This is simply human nature at work. As such, we should let a people mourn, revere, remember as they see fit. This is especially true for events long past.

It is particularly profound when an enemy is honored while a war still rages, as was done by de Gaulle at Stalingrad.  Another example of this is the Imperial Japanese Navy pilot Setsuo Ishino.  He was 19 years old and sent on a kamikaze mission during the Battle of Okinawa.  On April 11, 1945, he crashed into the USS Missouri, his mangled body later found among the carnage. 

In an amazing display of respect for one’s foe, the ship’s captain, William M. Callaghan, ordered a military burial at sea for Ishino, saying he was “a fellow warrior who had displayed courage and devotion, and who had paid the ultimate sacrifice with his life, fighting for his country.”  Under the circumstances, this was an incredible decision.  Men on board made a Japanese flag for the next morning’s ceremony.  Not all the sailors agreed at the time with their captain’s decision, but years later some of these men changed their minds and admitted their captain did the right thing.  Here is a video about this story (TJ3 History channel on YouTube):

As these examples show, a characteristic of decent people is a sense of honor and a respect for an imperfect past.  Imagine how lesser and ignoble the people of Mexico would be if they chose to spit in the direction of Camarón, or the Turks if they tore down the ANZAC memorial at Gallipoli, or the Zulus if a mob of them showed up to erase the British memorial at Isandlwana, or if the French plowed over or otherwise desecrated the German cemeteries.  What if Captain Callaghan had unceremoniously ordered Ishino’s body tossed overboard? Such actions would not improve the world.  On the contrary, the world would find itself a far worse place, one that is much nastier and pettier, needlessly further divided amongst itself.          

Tragically for humanity, there are those today who tear down statues, change the names of buildings and places, seek a hysterical revenge upon those who are long-dead.  They are weaklings who run like cowards from solemn, silent history into the waiting arms of a future they are then destined to repeat.  These physical reminders of history, even of men or causes deemed loathsome by today’s standards, serve as important lessons, lest we forget—and then foolishly repeat. 

But it is not the dead today’s desecraters actually wish to punish.  This performative rage against the past is merely cover for their own nefarious deeds. It is a pathetic excuse to harm the living, crow about one’s self-declared sanctimony, and engage in other childish asshattery.  They assume that they’d behave far better if their enlightened selves were magically transported back in time to find themselves amongst these past peoples they hold in contempt. Never was there a falser assumption on God’s Green Earth.

The Taliban-like destruction of statues is particularly troubling.  It is intended to make sure there is never a lasting peace.  They deliberately reignite past conflicts and subject those long-dead to a modern reckoning.  A petulant judgment lacking due process and historical context.  An unwise and wholly unnecessary undoing of forgiveness and reconciliation. These smug vandals could learn a lot from the adult manner in which Mexico and Turkey respect former enemies, rather than judge them by today’s morals.              

What’s the big deal?  It’s just a statue—and represents intolerable racism! No, the issue isn’t a fight against racism.  The aim of the desecraters is phony virtue for themselves and punishment of their ideological enemies.  I don’t see saints tearing down the monuments or renaming things and places.  I see dunderheads who intend to do far, far worse.  The hysteria as they desecrate and destroy the statues reeks of immaturity and cowardice at facing an imperfect past.  That they are allowed to do so with impunity shows our capitulation to a new tyranny to replace long-dead ones.  To trample on the history of the Confederacy is to trample on the history of the United States.  The modern-day time travelers who obsess over revising history to their liking—or else—are on a fool’s errand that shall make not a single person an angstrom happier, but it is guaranteed to result in fear and misery for everyone, themselves included.   

We must realize that those who desecrate and disrespect the dead shall eventually harm the living. We must not tremble before or rage against inanimate objects.  These tangible reminders of the past serve as cautionary tales.  These are not an excuse for modern strife. There are those who wish to destroy the Confederate monuments at Gettysburg and elsewhere.  Imagine how lesser we Americans will be as a people if we allow this.  

The desecration is well underway. Indeed, we become lesser by the day.