As time goes on and I enter and exit stages of life, I have become increasingly uncomfortable with how our society relates to conflict. David Mamet’s said, the essence of drama is conflict, but now we have taken this idea and applied it to all of life. The imperative is to find or create drama. This applies to our news, our politic, our employment. As I wrote this I found it hard not see conflict as the central core underlying the Anglosphere cultures, from World War I to our society’s obsession with War on Drugs. It is impossible to achieve peace if the framework is conflict. My grandfather fought him World War I, in Belgium. He was there for 10 days before mustard gas came over no-mans-land and sent home. He returned to World War II as part of the signal core. I have his war records. They don’t say much. I met the man once at the end of his life in Greenslopes Repatriation General Hospital. I was about 10 at the time, and all I could remember was an old man on a bed in one of the less modern sections of the hospital. Growing up, ANZAC Day would come around each year and we would go out and see the veterans from World War I and II marched to remind us of their bravery and the sacrifices that were made to bring us peace. By the time that I have become politically aware, there were questions over whether the day should be celebrated or even continued. Now 55 years later, I doubt if any of the World War II veterans are still marching. The connection to those times and to the eye witness accounts are now broken. People seems to have collective amnesia of these atrocities. I moved to Melbourne and got to know a very old frail couple. His wife told me some of their backstory. He was captured in Singapore. Held in Changi, then put to work on the Thai Burma Railway by the Japanese Force. Japanese culture had become so certain of its superiority that it drew the conclusion of anyone not like them, not with their mindset, was not human, nor needed to be treated as human. In the bleakness of it all after enduring so much suffering, he treasured life even more, and had trouble understanding why young people were so flippant with theirs. In 1992, I visited Japan. First destination was south. I got out of the train, went looking for the centre of the city. I got on a tram. We were heading for a darkness, where discordant music was heard. As we got closer, it sounded like Japanese opera of great sadness and grief. I got off the tram and walked towards to singing. The path rose, as I walked up the arch of a small bridge. A river flowed under along with lanterns. Each consisted of a cross of timber, a candle and paper around. Thousands were floating down the river. I stood still taking in the scene. Then it occurred to me, I was standing on the bridge that the Enola Gay aimed for, i looked up to see the A-Bomb Dome where atomic bomb was dropped 47 years before to the day. The next morning I walked around making photos. A couple were scared with the horrors of conflict, even though they were probably children when the detonation happened. Japanese has a policy of amnesia about World War II. I felt it important in my friendships with Japanese to give a sense of the war. Yasushi came with me to the Australian War Memorial, there were a group of Japanese tourists behind us. I asked what they were talking about. They were very impressed that Australia has such a good collection of Japanese war memorabilia but they didn’t realise that we were not on the same side. After leaving high school, I was employed as an Article Clerk at the department of Veteran Affairs. My job was to find and prepare medical records for doctors’ appointments at Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital. During my employment, I noticed the perception shift between World War II and Vietnam War Veterans in how people saw personal responsibility. The war crimes trails after the war ended the idea that the soldiers’ primary responsibility is to carry out orders. They were no longer heroes,and the country was further divided after all the trauma they had been through. There was no sense of closure, unlike World War II. I went back to university to research the difference in notion of masculinity between Chinese and Anglo Celtic Australian understanding. The two archetypes are the ‘warrior’ and the ‘scholar’, in both cultures. The big difference being that in Chinese culture to be respected as a warrior, one need cultural understanding like a scholar. This is missing in our culture. In Chinese culture the scholar is more respected, in ours the warrior won. We use the lexicon of war to describe sport, business and politics. I doubt if this is helpful. I’ve never been to war. Though in 2015 to 2017, I was in fact in a war zone. Under Duterte’s regime, Philippine embarked on a war against drugs. Everyone remotely connected to the drug world were hunted, possibly tortured, murdered even. In a corrupt justice system that favours the rich, this means unfair prosecution and needless death of poor rather than the contrary. I was in Manila when I was embroiled in a sting operation scams by corrupt police office where things went horribly wrong for everyone. A story for another time perhaps. Over my lifetime one thing I know for sure. No matter how confident politicians or business leaders are, it is very difficult to win a war now, whether that is Iraq, drugs or poverty. People have become less willing to relinquish land, freedom or change behaviours to suit forces they do not feel part of.

(NY 4-APRIL 18) DEAD VIET CONG-- South Vietnamese militiamen look at bodies of Viet Cong killed recently when they tried to overrun an outpost on Route 1, about four miles north of Hue. The road is vital supply line to northern front at Dong Ha, 10 miles south of the DMZ. Some of the Viet Cong got through the post’s defenseperimeter, damaging buildings, background, wiht explosives. (AP Wirephoto)1972.