Lest we forget

During our recent time away we spent a week in a Resort on the Kwai River a couple of hours north of Bangkok. It was very much a Thai resort and clearly Westerners are not common guests there. Very few spoke any English and it was always an interesting time communicating. This particular region had a great deal of natural beauty and was well enough away from the nearest township to be a very peaceful oasis.

One of the key historical interests in the area for us was the knowledge that in this region during World War 2, the Japanese forces had built what became know as the ‘Death Railway’ from Bangkok to Burma, with the ultimate plan to drive through to India and ultimate victory. Ronnie and I were able to visit two of the three War Cemeteries in the region. One in ChungKai held the remains of 1,740 Allied soldiers. This place was particularly sobering as it was the actual burial ground of troops during those awful days of brutality and death. The other main Cemetery was in Kanchanburi and became the central burial ground after the war when special units located bodies up and down the railway and re-interred them at this spot near the prisoner of war camps. Here there are just short of 7,000 men from Australia, Britain and The Netherlands buried. One of the more moving moments of the trip was probably when Ronnie was taking a photo of the gates as I stood outside the Cemetery and an elderly Anglo lady hearing us both talking asked if we were Australian. Entering into conversation and noting that she had flowers in her hand I asked if she had family buried here and she told me, ‘Yes’ My father is here.’ That made it even more personal!

One day we travelled out to Hellfire Pass and walked along the railway cutting where it is said that for every sleeper laid a soldier died. This was in many ways a ‘holy ground’ experience for both Ronnie and I as we walked through deeply mindful of the human cost. It is estimated that 16,000 allied prisoners of war died building this railroad along with a little published fact that some 100,000 Asian labourers also died. Hellfire Pass has not been used as a railway for many years and apart from several hundred metres that are maintained as a permanent memorial the jungle has reclaimed it; but other parts of the death railway are still used today carrying passengers down to Bangkok.

I came across a quote from those terrible days at Hellfire Pass: ‘When you go home, tell them of us and say we gave our tomorrow for your today.’

It has been interesting in recent years to see the growing importance among young people of ANZAC Day. Hundreds gather at ANZAC Cove each year now for ANZAC Day memorial services. This new impetus is a fairly recent phenomenon. I wonder what it is that has provoked this new interest in all things ANZAC? Is there something as a local church that we can learn from this?

One of my theories is that as life becomes more and more packaged, predictable and privatised, many people – and very much the younger population – have an idea that there is something much bigger, and they yearn for it. The spirit of ANZAC and the amazing stories that flow from it inspire and encourage hope. It gives them a vision of something much bigger than themselves. I think we all need that.

I like the bit where Jesus makes his first resurrection appearance to the disciples as a group:
‘On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.’ John 20:19,20

This is an interesting sequence for the ‘cosy, me, me, me’ church of today. Peace does not come through finding a safety zone and staying there. It comes by taking a risk and becoming vulnerable to others. Peace will not be found by saving ourselves; but by giving ourselves to the call of saving others. Peace has a cost. The Bible says that ‘without vision people perish’. Maybe that vision can be our gift to our children and grand children into the future?

Cheers - John