Letting Go of Hate

by

Perspectives

Some movies capture one's interest and try as you will, you just can't let them go. That happened to Velma and me on a recent Tuesday night.

THE RAILWAY MAN, a World War II movie is set in the jungles north of Singapore, stars Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine and Stellan Skarsgaard. It is a war story of epic proportions of man's inhumanity to man, and in spite of one man's excruciating suffering at the hands of his captors, at war's end, confronting his former captor, he could not bring himself to inflict upon his enemy pain for pain.

A description from Wikipedia: "THE RAILWAY MAN is a 2013 British-Australian war film directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. It is an adaption of the bestselling autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax.

"During World War II, Eric Lomax is a British officer who is captured by the Japanese in Singapore and sent to a Japanese POW camp where he is forced to work on the Thai-Burma Railway north to the Malay Peninsula. During his time in the camp as one of the Far East prisoners of War, Lomax is tortured by the Kepmetia for building a radio receiver... His only intention in fact had been to use the device as a morale booster for himself and his fellow prisoner-slaves. The torture depicted includes beatings and water boarding.

"Years later and still suffering the psychological trauma of his wartime experiences, with the help of his wife Patti and best friend Finlay, Lomax decides to find and confront one of his captors who escaped prosecution as a war criminal. He returns to the scene of his tortue after he has tracked down Japanese secret police officer Takashi Nagase in an attempt to let go of a lifetime of bitterness and hate."

Lomax could not bring himself to inflict pain even death upon his former captor. They soon embraced and forgave one another, and became the best of friends.

Some years ago, along with our London friend, Rev. Eric Murray, my family and I were visiting the new awe-inspiring Cathedral at Coventry, England, as well as the nearby bombed out remains of the old Cathedral, destroyed by German air craft during the war. Following the war, in the midst of ruins, the battle-scarred people of Coventry picked up thousands of nails from the debris, formed them into miniature Crosses and send them off to Germany, knowing full well that unresolved hate does more harm to the one hating than the one being hated.

One cannot help but wonder what is the underlying cause or causes for the prolonged blood bath taking place in the Middle East, branching out at times across the civilized world, relentless, never giving up, and what will be its final outcome. Is the problem an unresolved Old Testament issue? Could the 13th Century Crusades be responsible? What about the exploitation of the East by the West? Could it be age old religious hatred and bigotry?

Whatever the cause or causes for the devastating Middle East bloodbath, the killing of everyone until all the enemy are dead is pure insanity. Where there is no pure food, water, and air, freedom, human rights, love and good will, what else is there? What a bleak alternative.

In 1879, retired Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, the General who during the Civil War, lead the charge to torch Atlanta and the state of Georgia all the way to the Sea, speaking to the young officers at the Michigan Military Academy said, "I tell you war is hell."

Recent History reveals that in the midst of every divisive and bloody conflict between nations and people, when peace was restored mature and caring minds stepped forth and said enough is enough, resolved to settle their differences, to shake hands and together commenced laying the foundation for brotherhood, community, and a more secure world order. In my life time, that is why Germany, Japan and even North Vietnam today are friends and trading partners. Just who this someone or mature mind on either side of the Middle East conflict will be, God only knows.

Prolonged hate, hostility, ill will are always the losers. War is hell. Peace is the sane and sensible solution for us all.

Billy Cox lives in Louisville, Ky.