Thursday, June 6, 2013

June 6, 1944

It was only 70 years ago. Not much in the span of history, just about within my lifetime--I was born about a year later. But think of how different the world would be.

Speculation on the differences would be interesting--would we be speaking German? Would Linda and Matt be Japanese slaves like their families 70 years ago?

Best be thankful it turned out this way, I think. And recognize that it wasn't just this day, it was a lot of days, and a lot of "end of days" for ( "rough" numbers) 500,000 Americans in the total war.

My parents would name the boys from Genoa that died in the war. If you went back to the class pictures, you might find them, but they never got to live out their lives. Those were more personal losses to us in that small town.

The Russians lost 20 million, 40 times what the US lost. No wonder they were pissed off for decades. Same amount for the Chinese. We will never know how many of those were lost to friendly fire, but probably more than were killed by the Germans or the Japanese. The flooding caused by the Chinese army retreat was a big one, of course. Stalin used the conflict for his own devices.

Personally, I don't think there has been a June 6th that has passed by my adult life without at least contemplating for a bit and saying thanks.

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