I Love
America!
by Peter Jordan (Canadian)
And furthermore, I love Americans!
This may come as a bit of shock if you know me. I can just
about read the minds of some of my American friends...
... "What's Peter up to now? What's the catch? Is he trying to
curry favor by toadying up to his American friends? Is he about to make
a political statement with the US election just around the corner of
this coming weekend? Is he planning and plotting and paving the way
with US Immigration so that he can try for a Green Card? Or is he about
to repent for some terrible thing he did to, or said, about the
Middle North Americans?"
None of the above.
As anyone who knows me can testify, I have always been staunchly
pro-Canadian (which is not to say that I've been anti-American, or
anti-anybody else). It's just that I especially like to 'take the
mickey'* out of my friends who live next to God's country. (*tease)
So what gives?
I've been reading a book about the war in the Pacific (back in the
primeval days of the 1940s). Perhaps you already know that for 3 1/2
years I was a reluctant 'guest' of the Japanese Government in a
Shanghai Prisoner of War Camp. I was just a little boy back then, and I
really don't think the poor food and harsh conditions we encountered
left any lasting damage (though some might argue that point!) But the
experience was tough on my parents and other adults; in all there were
1800 inmates in our Camp.
Along with many other nationalities, there were some Americans locked
up with us, but I don't recall liking them more or less than any of the
other 'foreigners' who happened to be caught in China when the attack
on Pearl Harbor kicked off war in the Pacific.
Japan, from its tiny, overpopulated and under-resourced islands,
coveted economic power in Asia, and started by invading China and
Korea. You may have read or heard about some of the horrifying
atrocities attributed to the Japanese military throughout the
Asia/Pacific region during those dark days. Through my 11 year-old
eyes, I witnessed some of them. But don't focus on just the Japanese.
Most of us have national - if not personal - histories that bring shame
upon us.
Think of the empire-building nations of Spain, Portugal, Britain and
others. Were they motivated by pure and peaceful extension of their
borders? Was it the simple thrill of adventure and the pioneering
excitement of exploration? Or was it greed and exploitation?
Read this chilling statement: "A great power must be, above all, one
that controls more resources ... there has never been a case in history
where such a pursuit is realized in peace." (Zhang Wenmu, China
institute of Contemporary International Relations.) Watch out for China!
It was the gold and the silver, the slaves and the cheap labor, the
spices and the linens - and eventually the oil - that drove men to the
far frontiers of our planet. Ethnic cleansing was frequently the most
convenient way of settling new lands. Let's not think that this could
only happen in places like Rwanda & Sudan.
In the last couple of centuries, early Americans and Canadians
attempted to sweep their continent clean of 'undesirable' peoples.
America kept pushing west to Hawaii and as far as the Philippines. It
wasn't pretty. It was horrific in its brutality. Japan watched all this
and waited.
In Manchuria 100 years ago, the Japanese tangled with Russia; biding
their time, they hit on China in the '30s, struck a mortal blow at
Pearl Harbor, while invading many other islands of the Pacific and most
of Asia. Mass rape, massacre and even more repulsive viciousness
followed - things too awful to record here.
If ever there was a 'just' war, the United States waged it in the
Pacific - along with some allies - from 1941-45. Yet I have to tell you
that 'our side' committed atrocities too; horrendous ones.
What then has brought me to suddenly confess my love for Americans in
such a public manner? It's because I just read this book about the war
in the Pacific.
Japan held about 135,000 Prisoners of War throughout Asia, including
many civilians like my little British missionary family, which had been
caught in the right place at the wrong time. As the war wound down with
frightful fire-bombing of Japanese cities, and culminating in the
dropping of two atomic bombs, Tokyo's military hierarchy reluctantly
faced the inevitable: defeat.
Unknown to us, a last gasp of the sinking Japanese regime was to issue
orders for the slaughter of all Prisoners of War.
Happily, we didn't know about this. And on that blissful day of August
15th 1945, American soldiers flung wide the gates of our prison, and
this little 11 year-old boy ventured past the barbed wire that had
caged him up for all those years.
It is only now, after all these years, that out of the blue my heart is
filled with gratitude for the price America paid for my freedom; MY
freedom. 100,000 Americans died in their advance across the Pacific. I
know this is simplistic, but based purely on statistics, more than one
American died in bringing freedom to me and my family.
Here's a question for you if you're not an American: is it JUST
possible that what is seen today as 'aggressive American imperialism'
by much of the world... could be the means by which YOUR life has been,
or will be saved? And that the American - and other - soldiers who have
given their lives in Iraq and elsewhere, did not die in vain?
Anyway, I love Americans. They're not perfect, but then we Canadians
aren't either - yet! Maybe I'll start an "I Love Yankees" blog.
God Bless America!
Till next time,
Peter Jordan
Watchword
"When times are good, friends are plenty;
In times of adversity, not one in twenty."
Get the video "To End All Wars,"
directed by David Cunningham. It's the story of some military POWs of
Japan; not a pretty story, but it's accurate (I know), and really
well-made and marvelously acted. You can obtain it at http://www.Amazon.com or Google it:
'best buy dvds.'
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Peter Jordan is the founder and international director of YWAM
Associates. This article is from:
eTouch is an email supplement to the print
magazine 'inTouch' (downloadable in pdf format at http://www.ywamassociates.com
- click on inTouch Magazine) published for YWAM alumni
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