Thursday, October 25, 2007
The Length of the War
A lot of Americans think that WWII started on December 7, 1941 when Japanese naval forces conducted a very successful carrier aircraft raid on our naval forces at anchor in Pearl Harbor. Those with a better grasp of history know that it at least started two years earlier on September 1, 1939, when German forces began a very successful and brief invasion of Poland. Those with even greater historical knowledge put it back to September 18, 1931 when Japanese forces began to wage war against Manchuria after what we call the Mukden incident. (I'm happier to put it on September 7, 1937, with the Marco Polo Bridge incident because, after that, Japan fought China without a break until the surrender on September 7, 1945). However, the Mukden incident certainly was the start of hostilities between China and the Empire of Japan which waged hot and cold for the next 14 years.
Likewise, most people think that WWII ended in May and September, 1945 when German and Japanese representatives, respectively, signed formal surrender papers. Ah, but surrender is not the end; there is a traditional period of occupation following and then a formal treaty ending all hostilities and restoring the belligerents to a formal state of peace. It takes a real history savant to know that WWII ended in this way with the Treaty of San Francisco signed on September 8, 1951. That makes WWII just about 20 years long with shorter periods of combat operations for some nations involved.
Gulf War II, the current war in Iraq, has been going on since April, 2003, so about 4 and a half years. That's about a quarter of the formal length of WWII and just as our combat operations in WWII only lasted just over 4 years, our combat operations in Iraq 4 years ago lasted about 3 weeks. Apparently, the Germans and Japanese are better at war than the Iraqis.
The real difference between Gulf War II and WWII is the deaths the wars caused, 75,000 versus 72 million. For us, 4,000 versus 405,000. To free 50 million from the murderous Taliban and the tyrant Saddam, twice that seems like a bargain.
UPDATE: The Treaty of San Francisco ended the war with Japan. It's tougher to peg the end of our war with Nazi Germany. The best bet is the the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany signed by all parties involved (but Poland) on September 12, 1990. That makes WWII just about fifty-nine years long. Wow, who knew?
Likewise, most people think that WWII ended in May and September, 1945 when German and Japanese representatives, respectively, signed formal surrender papers. Ah, but surrender is not the end; there is a traditional period of occupation following and then a formal treaty ending all hostilities and restoring the belligerents to a formal state of peace. It takes a real history savant to know that WWII ended in this way with the Treaty of San Francisco signed on September 8, 1951. That makes WWII just about 20 years long with shorter periods of combat operations for some nations involved.
Gulf War II, the current war in Iraq, has been going on since April, 2003, so about 4 and a half years. That's about a quarter of the formal length of WWII and just as our combat operations in WWII only lasted just over 4 years, our combat operations in Iraq 4 years ago lasted about 3 weeks. Apparently, the Germans and Japanese are better at war than the Iraqis.
The real difference between Gulf War II and WWII is the deaths the wars caused, 75,000 versus 72 million. For us, 4,000 versus 405,000. To free 50 million from the murderous Taliban and the tyrant Saddam, twice that seems like a bargain.
UPDATE: The Treaty of San Francisco ended the war with Japan. It's tougher to peg the end of our war with Nazi Germany. The best bet is the the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany signed by all parties involved (but Poland) on September 12, 1990. That makes WWII just about fifty-nine years long. Wow, who knew?
Labels: WWII; Gulf War II
