Chris Cantell Discusses World News: We must remember by Barbora Misakova

Sometimes, all right, especially when I watch some war movies, I think about how lucky I am. How lucky I am that I was born at the right time and on the right place. Just that vision of being born somewhere in the Japan during 1930s scares me. I know, I should be ashamed for these words, but I am not, because I know what the price of life is and I would never change it for anything! Sure I know nothing about war, nothing about killing and shedding blood; I don’t know all those soldiers fighting there, don’t know their names, their stories. But even though all I know is just from Hollywood movies, I have to say that the facts in them were scaring me to death. All that fear, anger, anxiety, sadness – I felt it all too. For sure, the intensity of it was incomparable with the feelings of soldiers. Anyway I believe that the feelings can be shared and everything what one person was going through can be retold and experienced again! So let’s listen!
After reading one article I realized I know nothing about the things which happened years ago. I know no one who ever had first-hand experience of war. I know no names, no faces. And it’s a big pity. Does anyone of you know for example the name Tsuruji Akikusa? I don’t think so. Akikusa is 81-year-old veteran from the Second World War who was fighting on Iwo Jima when he was only 17! From 21,000 soldiers only 1000 stayed alive and he was one of them. Was it good or bad luck? It’s hard to say. Fighting in such young age is more than terrible; going on the island which is called by your commander “Hell Island” is not better either. Hiding in the forest, trying to dodge the bullets is nothing I would like to try. Starving to death and hardly injured Akikusa was straggling from one tunnel to another for months. All around him were just dead bodies of his co-soldiers and bugs which were the only food he had. Is this still not enough for you? So what about seeing your friend detonating a grenade on his body as the only possibility not to be captured? This is not a fairy tale, nor even movie script. This is reality and this all really happened. And even though we cannot change it, we should at least remember it; remember the names, the faces, the feelings of fear and confusion. After all it’s nothing in comparison with those people who have known the stories and have them as their only memories.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080921/ap_on_re_as/as_return_to_iwo_jima;_ylt=Am8BPWFZXfw6GRiZPAOw5Pas0NUE

by Barbora Misakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.<br><br><font size=2>These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.</font><br>

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