History: Remembrance Day 2026

Self-tutoring about remembrance throughout decades: the tutor reflects on Remembrance Day, 2026.

I imply in my Remembrance Day post from 2019 that people’s remembrance, somehow, seems connected to the possibility that such a war could happen again.

When I was in elementary school in the 70s, WWII wasn’t a stale memory. When I started school, in 75, WWII had only ended thirty years ago. I knew, or knew of, people who had served in it and were still working, perhaps as a teacher, a customs agent, or a nurse. It seemed the Israelis were still trying to catch escaped war criminals from WWII.

The map had changed, of course: now it was understood that the Soviet Union, who had fought on the Allies side in WWII, was the menace to the “free world.” Possibly because the world powers in the 70s had all been present in WWII, it seemed another World War might yet happen. People were afraid.

Yet, Remembrance Day started because of WWI, which by the 70s was eclipsed by WWII in mainstream awareness. However, to the people who had served in WWI, or had lived through it, WWI remained The Great War. In the 70s, people were still around from that time.

I talked to a WWII veteran back in 1991 who said that, compared to WWI, WWII soldiers enjoyed much better fighting conditions. Nevertheless, out of his original platoon of thirty-two, nine remained at the end of the war. “Most fighting men do get wounded,” he commented. He had been badly wounded, by a bayonet, and expected not to survive, but actually lived until around 2020.

The thought of such young people, suddenly posted on the field and realizing they had to shoot or slash an enemy soldier in order to survive, is too hard to comprehend, for me. I’ve been lucky, not having had to serve in any combat. My father was a military man, and was badly wounded in a military plane crash. Some others did die in that crash – one person I’d met just before it happened. They were returning not from combat, but from a surveillance mission. Whether it’s in combat or on patrol, national security involves sacrifice and loss.

An observation a cynical person, in their mid-fifties, might make is that wars are generated by the elite, and are used as cover to move large amounts of assets. The soldier, fighting bravely on the front line, or perhaps even the general, may not be aware of such stage management, but there seems not to be a war without it nowadays. Perhaps it was ever thus.

The question is, if they had known this, how many of the fighting personnel would want to support the elite anyway. Yet, in the fog of war, such considerations are postponed.

Thank-you to all those who fought and died for my freedom and for the freedom of our children.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.