Recently the Japanese government released the Right of Collective Self-defence, a situation which was banned for over 70 years (since WWII). The decision made Japan's two closest neighbours worry about the intention of the Japanese government.
Moreover since the collective memory of China and (South) Korea who suffered from Japanese's invasion in World War II. Even though Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to comfort these neighbours that the action was to be seen as not harmful, it hardly reduced these neighbours' suspicions.
We only need to look at history since WWII, there have been an innumerable number of "small wars". In our time we can consider Iraq, where the anti-government military forces are fighting with the government. NATO's troops are leaving Iraq as are the Americans.
The United States government believed they could build a democratic and peaceful new Iraq, so they destroyed the Saddam government. But after 11 years, Iraq now is a democratic country with wars and chaos. People have lost their homes and families, and are suffering from the heartache of endless war. They might well hate each other because they belong to the different branch of the religion, the war effects are the same.
Look at Ukraine; Crimea just declared independence from Ukraine, Donetsk followed and tried to join the Russian Federation. And now there is what amounts to another of these "small wars" between the Ukraine government and the Donetsk local defence force. The American and Russian governments have even tried to mediate in this instance. It has brought the Ukrainians nothing but suffering.
We can also look at Israel and Palestine; fighting for over seven decades, and it seems endless. Recently on the news, three Jewish teenagers were kidnapped and killed.
The Israel government has pointed the finger at blamed Hamas. After a couple days, a Palestinian teenager were found dead, and extremist Jews have been suspected. This looks like an endless circle, and which continually builds enmity between Jews and Palestinian.
My story from China
I still remember in my high school years in China, we were required to participate in military training. This one week of training school management believed would help us become more disciplined in our school life. The training was hard and boring, except for the real machine gun shooting class, which was held on the last day of the training.
I was as excited as - I was dreaming of becoming a soldier. I think this is common for toys, but when it was my turn to use the machine gun, it changed my view of life. When I was crawling as instructed by the army officer, I was given the modified AK-47 with 5 bullets. The target was 100 metres away from where I was, I had to put the gun stock against my right shoulder and aim at the target with my left eye closed.
At that time, I felt my hands became so wet with no reason. Soon, I received the command to "fire at will" with other students in my group. It was dead silent as no one was willing to fire the first bullet, we were all scared even though we were excited not one minute ago.
Suddenly, someone on my left shot the first bullet, the noise was so scary; it wasn't like the firework at all. My right index finger couldn't press the trigger, as I could feel my right hand was trembling itself. Just that time, my instructor questioned me why didn't I shoot. I then used all my strength to press the trigger; the gun fire noise made my ears shut as I could hear nothing.
There was only one idea in my head, which was to shoot the rest of those four bullets as soon as possible, forget about the target. Once I shoot out my last bullet, I felt full with energy, it was such a relief.
I feel so lucky I was living in China and now am living in Australia, as both countries are not at war.
I realise now how important the peace is. However, war comes when peace is broken; and in turn, peace is coming when the war is finished. It seems to me to be an endless cycle. But to get that eternal peace there is only one way, and that is love. Like Jesus teaches us, love your enemies like loving yourselves.
Peace yes, war no! May peace abound in the world. This is my prayer.
Oscar Duan is from China, he has an accountancy degree from University of Hertfordshire (UH) International campus in Malaysia, and has undertaken further accountancy studies in Australia for accreditation here. He is married to Heyley.
Oscar Duan's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/oscar-duan.html