How Was the World 50 Years Ago?
ARE you old enough to remember how the world was in 1945? It was just starting to recover from World War II that began in 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany because of the Nazi invasion of Poland. If you are too young to remember that, do you remember the war in Korea that broke out in 1950? Or the war in Vietnam that lasted from the 1950’s till 1975? Or the war in Kuwait provoked by Iraq in 1990?
Doesn’t it strike you as remarkable that when we review history since World War II, we have to recall so many more wars that have sown misery and suffering for millions of people and that have destroyed the lives of other millions? What legacy did World War II leave for people back then?
Effects of World War II
Some 50 million people were killed in World War II, and by 1945, millions of refugees were wandering across Europe trying to return to their homes in bombed-out cities and towns and to rebuild their shattered lives. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls, especially in Russia and Germany, were trying to recover from the trauma of rape at the hands of invading armies. Rationing prevailed over most of Europe—food and clothing were in short supply. Hundreds of thousands of demobilized soldiers were looking for jobs. Millions of widows and orphans were grieving for their lost husbands and parents.
Jews were still trying to absorb the reality of the Holocaust that wiped out millions of their fellow Jews and the possibility of their producing other generations. Millions of people—from America, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and many other nations—died in that war. A huge genetic pool potential was lost in order to further the political and commercial interests of the world powers and their rulers.
Many countries were so battered by World War II that their first priority had to be economic recovery. Food shortages remained prevalent in Europe for several years after the war. Spain, although officially neutral during World War II, had been deeply affected by its own civil war (1936-39) and by trade embargoes—food ration books were still in use until June 1952.
In the Far East, the memory of Japanese atrocities was still fresh in the minds of victims in Burma, China, the Philippines, and other Oriental countries. The United States, although a victor nation, suffered the loss of some 300,000 military personnel, about half of these losses being in the Pacific war zones. In Japan, poverty, tuberculosis, and long food ration lines were the lot of the civilian population.
Churchill’s Call to Action
In his victory speech presented to the British people on May 13, 1945, at the conclusion of World War II in Europe, Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated: “I wish I could tell you to-night that all our toils and troubles were over. . . . I must warn you . . . that there is still a lot to do, and that you must be prepared for further efforts of mind and body and further sacrifices to great causes.” With farsightedness, anticipating the spread of Communism, he said: “On the continent of Europe we have yet to make sure that . . . the words ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’, and ‘liberation’ are not distorted from their true meaning as we have understood them.” Then he uttered a challenging call: “Forward, unflinching, unswerving, indomitable, till the whole task is done and the whole world is safe and clean.”—Italics ours.
A Half Century of Conflicts and Death
In a speech in 1992, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali admitted that “since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, over 100 major conflicts around the world have left some 20 million dead.” Pushing the death toll even higher, World Watch magazine stated: “This has been the least peaceful century in history.” The same source quotes one researcher as saying that “more people have been killed by wars in this century than in all previous human history combined. Some 23 million of those deaths have been inflicted since World War II.”
The Washington Post, however, reported yet another estimate: “Since the end of World War II, about 160 wars have been waged around the globe, resulting in more than 7 million battlefield deaths and as many as 30 million civilian deaths. In addition, there have been the wounded, the raped and those made refugees.” None of this takes into account the millions of victims of violent crime earth wide during the last 50 years!
Now, in 1995, we still have lethal conflicts fired by burning hatred that are killing off not just soldiers who have contracted for possible death but also thousands of civilians in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Russia.
Can we therefore say that 50 years after 1945, “the whole world is safe and clean”? What progress has mankind made toward making our earth a fit and safe place to live? What have we learned in 50 years? Has mankind progressed in the things that really matter —values, morals, ethics? The next two articles will answer these questions. A fourth article will discuss the future prospects for all of us in our global village.
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Memories of the Post-World War II Era
One Englishman now in his 60’s recalls: “Back in the late ’40’s, we had no television in our home. Radio was the chief stimulus to our imagination. As I was still in school, reading and homework kept my mind busy. I went to the cinema maybe once a month. I used to cycle several miles on Saturdays to watch my favorite soccer team. Relatively few families could afford a car or a telephone. Like millions more in Britain, we had no separate bathroom. The toilet was outside, and the bathtub was in the kitchen, which doubled for a bathroom. During the war, we had survived on meals made from dehydrated foods —powdered eggs, milk, and potatoes. Fruits, such as oranges and bananas, were an occasional luxury. Their arrival at the local greengrocery shop was a signal for everyone to make a mad rush to queue up for their ration. Many women had to work in munitions factories. Little did people then realize the incredible changes that were in store—a world of TVs, videos, computers, cyberspace, fax communications, spaceflight, and genetic engineering.”