Remembrance Day is traditionally a day to remember the fallen.
We remember the fallen, but we also give thought to those they left behind.
Every town in the Lower Mainland has its cenotaphs. All but the smallest have names inscribed for the war dead in both the First and Second World Wars.
The toll, particularly of the First World War, was incredible.
Between 1914 and 1918, there were about eight million Canadians. More than 620,000 people – around seven per cent of the total population – served in uniform. Of those, around 67,000 were killed and another 173,000 wounded. The losses in the Second World War were not as severe per capita, but another generation went through the same horrors.
In both wars, everyone knew someone who had been killed or wounded, knew a family that had lost someone.
Those wars shaped our communities. We see the visual evidence on the cenotaphs in the rows of names.
The other impacts are now largely invisible. Our country was lucky to be spared the massive civilian death tolls that were seen in many other countries throughout the two world wars. For the most part, the victims in Canada were sons, husbands, brothers. They left behind empty places in every community. At dinner tables and on college campuses, on assembly lines and in lumber mills, in offices and places of worship, there were gaps that would never be truly filled.
Families were wrenched apart. If the first part of Remembrance Day is remembering the fallen, the second part is making a renewed commitment to doing everything possible to ensure that we avoid future wars.
There is nothing glorious in war, no matter what the action movies claim. Some wars may be unavoidable, a small handful may be necessary, but even a war entered into for the best reasons takes lives, military and civilian, smashes communities, tears apart families, and leaves names on cold stone monuments in place of living, breathing people.
Wars don’t ever end. We’re still living in a world defined by all those missing people taken from us too soon.
– M.C.
