Yuri Ishikawa
Mr. Pangier/ Mr. Shaffer
European Literature/ European History
4 April 2016
Just War Theory
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
John F. Kennedy
The War always makes a lot of sacrifice; killed many innocent people and nature. But it is not killing the only people who were involved the war. Once war happened, after over the war still it left a scar. Thomas C Foster who wrote How to read literature like a Professor said, “Every work is either part of the social problem or part of the solution” (Foster 63). Most of the time, the war happened to peace, but it has resulted in many disputes and destruction. Then, can war be justified? War is moral when fought for peace and by just rules curtail the oppressors. Now what is moral? What is peace? What is justified? There is no ethical justification to promiscuously destroy what we have a tendency to never produce and can't create. There is, however, one exceptional case that presumably justifies the destruction of life, destruction of your people or their way of life.
The Vietnam War is an example of an unjustifiable war. It isn't justifiable because the cause of the war was to help prevent the spread of communism, the US was not in any direct or indirect threat of Vietnam or its communism. I think that we do not have the right to invade other countries purely on the basis of enforcing democracy. More bombs were dropped on Vietnam than were dropped in the entire Second World War. This war waste 58,000 American lives who have a future, but countless innocent Vietnamese civilians and millions of Vietnamese soldiers. In Vietnam the dioxide remains in the soil and is now damaging the health of the grandchildren of the war's victims. A report published in 2003 claimed that 650,000 people in Vietnam, most of the children were still suffering from chronic conditions as a result of the chemicals dropped on the country during the war. Also American president didn’t tell to American soldiers that chemical defoliants would affect their bodies. As this circumstance, young people who volunteered for the war didn’t know much of information about the war. From the book, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, we could see that how the youth are forced to fight and how they don’t know what they're fighting for. “‘Then what exactly is the war for?"asks Tjaden. Kat shrugs his shoulders. ‘There must be some people to whom the war is useful.’ ‘Well, I'm not one of them,’ grins Tjaden. ‘Not you, nor anybody else here.’”(Remarque 205).
A war is justifiable, when it means are. Satyagraha is the only example of justifiable wars. A satyagraha movement is a non-violent movement started by Mahatma Gandhi to send the British back to their country and leaving India Free. Satyagraha also helped shape Nelson Mandela 's struggle in South Africa under apartheid, Martin Luther King, Jr. 's campaigns during the civil rights movement in the United States, and many other similar movements. Satyagraha, this translates roughly as “Truth-force." Every time, when somebody talks about resistance, everybody thinks in terms of weapons and war and fighting. But we can resist with the state so powerful with no weapon. Nonviolence is something very powerful, and the power behind it is not weapons, but the support of the people.
A war is justifiable when it is for protect your life, your people or your way of life. "We are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. " (Remarque 223) Because rather than war being the only solution I think that war is the easy way out. War is a frightening event that occurs through out life. I agree, that sometimes you are forced to do things you might not want to do, however, I don't think that it makes war acceptable. They start hating for not much reason and sooner or later they try starting a war. I don't think that killing millions of innocent children, and people is necessary. War is a horrible fight between countries; it kills thousands, even millions of people. “And this is only one hospital, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. “ (Remarque 209) All men are created equal. All men has life to live. Whatever the reason might be, I think war is something we should try to avoid if possible. Killing and destroying other people's life is unacceptable. People go into war for countless reasons; but power is a main factor of war. However, as a Saryagraha, we can chooce non-violent war. We have to forget the need of power and be bond together to have a better world.
Works Cited
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A. W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. Print.
"Satyagraha" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
“Vietnam War" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading between the Lines. New York: Quill, 2003. 60-64. Evergladeshs. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Changes
I corrected my grammer mistakes and changed my conclusion. Also, my adviser Gideon gave me a idea that I should put my first draft's conclusion to my thesis statement and I thought it is good idea, soI changed it.