Remember VJ Day

Perhaps the one thing that most of the post-WWII generations 'know' about VJ Day is something they probably don't know was associated with the VJ Day celebrations - the iconic kissing sailor photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt taken during the first celebrations in New York City. Girls had posters of it on their walls when I was in college, and most of the initial links from a quick Google search of VJ Day 2010 are about the kiss, a statue of it accompanied by a national kiss-in, etc.

The celebrations that followed the Japanese surrender, and a beautifully-staged kiss were both wonderful and memorable. But Victory (Victory over Japan) Day is a solemn remembrance of the many thousands of lives poured out in the second half of a near global struggle, to block the domination of many small and weak nations by one. I find it ironic that sixty-five years after, the only mention of these events in the popular US media relates to a single staged photograph. Of course, here in the US, there is often a sense of guilt mixed in with VJ Day celebrations, tied to Japan's forced surrender following the use of a terrible weapon on her civilian population. While the reasons for forcing an unconditional surrender out of Japan are well-known, and while there will probably never be a complete consensus on the decision to use the atom bomb, it would be appropriate to celebrate the end of the war and remember the dead.

Sadly, President Obama, indeed much of the country, seems totally apathetic about such memorials. Possibly, if forced into a speech about it, the president would find it necessary to belabor American sins, arrogance and pride, without remembering why we came to such a point and what necessitated the war. There is no excuse however, for the near total silence from the media and the population. Leaders in Canada, Great Britain, even Japan (for different reasons obviously) honor August 15th with wreaths, solemnity and remembrance. We would do well not to lightly throw away our own history.

"We renew our promise to never wage war, and we promise to do our utmost to achieve eternal world peace and to never repeat again the mistake of war."

Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan

Oh ... Iowa!

The President stumbled a little when he said, "It's a great pleasure to be here in Iowa - Ottawa."

He then got down to business, saying "I love this country ..." However, Canada's current love of the President may be short-lived if he follows through on his interest in renegotiating NAFTA. The Guardian reported on ongoing tension between the US and Canada that began when the President was running for office. At that time, he made clear that his support for and by labor unions would necessitate a retreat from some of our trade obligations. Since winning the election however, he's backed away from some of his more hard-line statements, hinting that he would merely be interested in modifying some of the terms of NAFTA.

The president muddied his position on Nafta at the press conference by adding something positive. "Now is a time where we have to be very careful about any signals of protectionism," he said, adding a promise that the US will meet its international trade obligations.

Harper was equally anxious to avoid signs of a split. "I'm quite confident that the United States will respect those obligations and continue to be a leader on the need for globalised trade," he said, though he did not sound totally convinced.

As well as concern over Nafta, the Canadian government has been alarmed by other protectionist moves by Obama such as the "buy America" provisions in his $787bn economic stimulus package, which originally proposed only US steel be used for infrastructure projects. The "buy America" provisions have since been watered down, with Obama saying the US would not do anything that ran counter to existing trade agreements.

If the President is to continue our good relationships with our closest neighbors, as well as those in Europe and elsewhere, he is going to have to avoid falling into the trap of protectionism and retreat. Indeed, the recent issue of The Economist warns against just such a trap (February 7, 2009). In the cover article titled, "The return of economic nationalism," the journal argues that the 'spectre' of 'economic nationalism' will sink the world into depression if given free reign. This argument is all too correct. We must avoid the isolationist tendencies that damaged both the US and the globe following WWI and leading up to WWII. I just hope President Obama is listening. Sinking into this trap would be a far more serious stumble.