I find that your coverage of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary VJ Day, while doubtless well-intentioned (Voice, August 20, 2025), did not quite hit the right note of solemnity, especially in the present context.
You are right that tremendous sacrifices of course were made in the Pacific theatre in World War Two: but, in so far as it is ‘often-overlooked’, you do not highlight the biggest oversights often made in coverage of that theatre.
Sadly the dimensions most often neglected, the Sino-Japanese war and the Bengal famine, were associated with a very high proportion of the casualties and human suffering during the conflict.
Secondly, especially in terms of assessing the legacy of the conflict, it seems remiss particularly at this time not to acknowledge exactly how the war in the Pacific ended. The unleashing of nuclear weapons and their subsequent proliferation never seemed more dangerous since, with his inauguration in January, more powerful weaponry than ever before has been put into the hands of the least balanced person to hold it.
Ironically, Donald draft-dodger is now dangerously exacerbating a conflict he promised voters he would solve with a single phone call by failing to abide by the terms of a 1994 agreement through which the Ukraine surrendered its post-Soviet missiles, according to which the US was supposed to be a guarantor of the integrity of its frontiers.
Never forget. Yes, never forget that we don’t want ever again to be in a position where a conflict is ended by nuclear atrocity against a civilian population. And please don’t make that more likely by empowering or deferring to an increasingly senile lunatic. A truly comprehensive message regarding the catastrophe of war seems at this time to be something of which the world needs a reminder more than ever.
G Kent
Pinchbeck
