VE Day - 70 years on

Better late than never, a post about the commemoration of VE Day, 70 years ago last Friday. This site lists the casualties from Lewis who were lost between 1939 and 1945, some of whom fell in the Netherlands, my home country. One of those is remembered on two tombstones in Lewis, one at Sandwick and the other in the Eye Cemetery at Aignish. This site lists the losses from Harris, Uist and Barra. Apart from commemorating the losses of military personnel, we also remember the civilian losses. Not only those killed as a direct result of military action, but especially the 6 million slaughtered in the Nazi death camps in Germany, Poland and Austria. Whether we will ever learn from that - I hold out little hope. 

In three months' time, we will commemorate VJ Day. On August 15th, the day Japan surrendered to Allied forces after two atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Again, not just the troops, but also the civilians. Unlike Germany, Japan has never issued a formal apology for the atrocities visited upon the occupied lands of East Asia. We continue to wait for that to happen.