When I was 17 years old, I developed a fascination with WWII (1939-1945), especially with the Nazi Holocaust. I remember sitting in Mr. Rockhill's "Recent U.S. History" class, learning about the brutality, the casualties, Hitler, concentration camps, gas chambers, napalm, and atomic bombs. Photos of people literally burning and evaporating due to heat and radiation will forever be burned into my memory. I couldn't, and STILL cannot, wrap my head around the disturbing realities of WWII! "Visit Concentration Camps in Aushwitz, Poland" and "Visit Normandy, France (where D-Day occurred)" have since been added to my bucket list, and any chance I get to learn more, I take.
Well, while in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, my team got to learn a bit about how the area had been affected by WWII. It was surreal visiting the "Bridge Over the River Kwai" and the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum; I was brought into a greater awareness of the inhumanity that took place all over the world during that time. In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and invaded Malaya (the U.S. was NOT a fan of Japan at this time!), and thus started the Pacific War. In mid-1942, while the Japanese were fighting the British in Burma (bordering Thailand), they discovered they needed more supplies and men to fight their battles, so they decided to build a railroad running from Thailand to Burma. To carryout this vision, they needed to break through jungle and a long wall of mountain (now known as Hellfire Pass), and gap the River Kwai (now known as the famous "Bridge Over the River Kwai"). Doing so required a lot of man power. Men, women, and children were forced to walk long distances (often barefoot), were fed minimal amounts of inedible food leaving them malnourished and emaciated, and were made to work 16 hour days with hand tools. Over 100,000 POWs (prisoners of War -from the U.S., Australia, etc.) and Asian laborers/civilians perished during the construction of the railroad, many falling to malaria, dysentery, and cholera, as well as falls/construction accidents and death due to a lack of nourishment. The devastation families faced was immeasurable – many workers had been promised good pay and better living conditions, and were sorely disappointed.
The inhumanity that took place made my heart hurt, the pictures of grown men wasting away, literally like walking skeletons – my eyes were opened to the reality that this was just ONE instance during the war when people were stripped of their dignity and value, belittled to nothing more than workhorses to aid a cause most of them didn't even support. Things of this nature were happening all over the world. When we think of WWII, most of us think of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but the truth is, there were so many other people who we dehumanized as well. And then I look at the history of the world and the amount of casualties due to the selfish desires of nations and kingdoms, all at the expense of many innocent bystanders. I look at the news today and the longstanding struggle between Israel and Palestine, the issues in Ukraine and Syria. What darkness we find in the world, that mankind could be capable of such evil doings! God created man in His image and I truly believe it breaks His heart that human life has come to mean so little… this most assuredly was not His intention!
Please join me in prayer for all who are currently living hell on earth, that the light of the Lord would fill dark spaces and bring redemption, that His peace would saturate these places.
