The Obsolescence of War

My friend, I’ll call her Susan, sent me a poem that she wrote in 1975 entitled “The Obsolescence of War.” I wrote back that not much had changed in 31 years. She replied:

Yes, it's true. Nothing much has changed in terms of man's solutions to solving conflicts. Maybe my perspective is a little different because I was born in an assembly center (Tanforan) prior to my family being relocated and interned during World War II at Topaz, Utah. I'm a third generation American of Japanese decent. I know what can happen.

Given Susan and her family’s experience with internment during World War II, it is understandable why Susan is particularly worried about war. As well as we all should be. Go here for a Power Point presentation on the Tanforan assembly area in San Bruno, CA, for Japanese internees. Go here for a San Francisco Museum site on the Internment of San Francisco Japanese.

I differ from Susan in that I acknowledge that war is not obsolete. It will never be obsolete as long as there are peoples who wish to enslave others. Here is Susan’s poem:

The Obsolescence of War

We have the atomic bomb!
We have the power to wipe out the world….
But no, what an uncivilized way to conduct
A war is a must
To fight for peace
To show for power
To get our own way…but…

We have the atomic bomb!
We have the power to wipe out the world….
But no, what an uncivilized way to conduct
A war is good for the economy
It fills our hospitals.
It provides jobs to build weapons
It gives reason for having armed forces…but…

We have the atomic bomb!
We have the power to wipe out the world….
But no, what an uncivilized way to conduct
A war must have rules - a game of strategy
Only field artillery can be used
Only bombs of a certain magnitude can be dropped
Only rules of fair play can be used on both sides…but…

We have the atomic bomb!
We have the power to wipe out the world….
But no, what an uncivilized way to conduct
A war will make historic firsts
Modern technology will enable us to bring out the injured
Record numbers of injured will have a chance to survive
The death ratio will be the lowest of all wars…but…

We have the atomic bomb!
We have the power to wipe out the world….
But no, what an uncivilized way to conduct
A war must be fought to the end
In a decade of two the weak will surrender
What was the reason we were fighting this war?
My grandfather once told me but I’ve since forgotten
They still won’t give in
There is only a small section of land untouched by war

We have the atomic bomb!We have the power to wipe out the world!