I must first declare a personal bias on this issue. I was born in a POW camp as a prisoner of the Japanese in Hong Kong during WWII. My family spent almost 4 years in that camp in inhumane conditions.
The focus on Remembrance Day almost exclusively is on armed forces casualties from wars since WWI. Yet, it has been civilians who have suffered most during wars or armed conflicts. There are few memorials or formal observances for their deaths.
The European Council in Brussels in 2003 estimated that since 1990 almost 4 million people have died in wars, 90% of whom were civilians. Since WWI the number of civilian casualties have been increasing in comparison to military casualties.
Although there is not agreement estimates of civilian casualties : range from 500,000 in Iraq and 1 million in Vietnam and Korea, 7 million in WWI and between 35-50 million in WWII. It’s estimated that there may have been close to 20 million Chinese civilian casualties at the hands of the Japanese alone in WWII. The numbers can be confusing, because some estimates include only those people killed by direct violence, whereas many died as a result of infrastructure destruction. The fact that we so accurately count the numbers of military personnel killed in the wars, but don’t bother with an estimation of civilian casualties, may reflect an uncaring or blind attitude about civilian suffering.
Following WWII, a series of treaties governing the laws of war were adopted. These Geneva Conventions would come to force, in no small part, because of a general reaction against the practices of WWII. Although the Fourth Geneva Convention attempted to erect some legal defenses for civilians in time of war, the is no explicit attention paid to the problems of bombardment and the hazardous effects in the combat zone. In 1977, Protocol I was adopted as an amendment to the Geneva Conventions, prohibiting the deliberate or indiscriminate attack of civilians and in the war zone. Although ratified by 173 countries, the only countries that are currently not signatories to Protocol I are the U.S., Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India and Turkey.
And while the deaths of soldiers or groups of soldiers, including those killed as a result of terrorism, often occupy the attention of the public and media, our awareness of civilian atrocities in Vietnam, China, or Sudan, Rwanda tend to fade quickly or receive passing attention.
The justification for civilian casualties as “collateral damage” is supported by what is known as the “Just War Theory,” or in other words, the “ends justifies the means.” This advocates a system of proportionality, in which the greater good –a successful outcome of war or defeat of the enemy—justifies the killing of innocent civilians. Such an argument was used in Allied Forces firebombing of German cities in WWII, Napalm bombing in Vietnam and in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT’s Center for International Studies, and author of The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars, argues, “The United States, which should be regarded as a principal advocate of human rights, undermines its credibility when it’s so dismissive of civilian casualties in its wars. Appealing for international action on Sudan, Syria and other countries may sound hypocritical when our own attitudes about civilians are so cold.”
So as we observe Remembrance Day, and hope for an end to wars and violence, let’s not just remember the fallen soldiers, but the millions of innocent civilian casualties, who had no opportunity or desire to defend themselves. That would be then, true remembrance.
I must first declare a personal bias on this issue. I was born in a POW camp as a prisoner of the Japanese in Hong Kong during WWII. My family spent almost 4 years in that camp in inhumane conditions.
The focus on Remembrance Day almost exclusively is on armed forces casualties from wars since WWI. Yet, it has been civilians who have suffered most during wars or armed conflicts. There are few memorials or formal observances for their deaths.
The European Council in Brussels in 2003 estimated that since 1990 almost 4 million people have died in wars, 90% of whom were civilians. Since WWI the number of civilian casualties have been increasing in comparison to military casualties.
Although there is not agreement estimates of civilian casualties : range from 500,000 in Iraq and 1 million in Vietnam and Korea, 7 million in WWI and between 35-50 million in WWII. It’s estimated that there may have been close to 20 million Chinese civilian casualties at the hands of the Japanese alone in WWII. The numbers can be confusing, because some estimates include only those people killed by direct violence, whereas many died as a result of infrastructure destruction. The fact that we so accurately count the numbers of military personnel killed in the wars, but don’t bother with an estimation of civilian casualties, may reflect an uncaring or blind attitude about civilian suffering.
Following WWII, a series of treaties governing the laws of war were adopted. These Geneva Conventions would come to force, in no small part, because of a general reaction against the practices of WWII. Although the Fourth Geneva Convention attempted to erect some legal defenses for civilians in time of war, the is no explicit attention paid to the problems of bombardment and the hazardous effects in the combat zone. In 1977, Protocol I was adopted as an amendment to the Geneva Conventions, prohibiting the deliberate or indiscriminate attack of civilians and in the war zone. Although ratified by 173 countries, the only countries that are currently not signatories to Protocol I are the U.S., Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India and Turkey.
And while the deaths of soldiers or groups of soldiers, including those killed as a result of terrorism, often occupy the attention of the public and media, our awareness of civilian atrocities in Vietnam, China, or Sudan, Rwanda tend to fade quickly or receive passing attention.
The justification for civilian casualties as “collateral damage” is supported by what is known as the “Just War Theory,” or in other words, the “ends justifies the means.” This advocates a system of proportionality, in which the greater good –a successful outcome of war or defeat of the enemy—justifies the killing of innocent civilians. Such an argument was used in Allied Forces firebombing of German cities in WWII, Napalm bombing in Vietnam and in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT’s Center for International Studies, and author of The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars, argues, “The United States, which should be regarded as a principal advocate of human rights, undermines its credibility when it’s so dismissive of civilian casualties in its wars. Appealing for international action on Sudan, Syria and other countries may sound hypocritical when our own attitudes about civilians are so cold.”
So as we observe Remembrance Day, and hope for an end to wars and violence, let’s not just remember the fallen soldiers, but the millions of innocent civilian casualties, who had no opportunity or desire to defend themselves. That would be then, true remembrance.