Rod Farraway, Chaplain
Next Monday after recess we will gather as a school on the Mackay Lawn to commemorate Remembrance Day. This is a ceremony that seeks to remember the sacrifices of others, rather than to glorify war. During the ceremony the 75 names of the Old Cranbrookians who died during the Second World War will be read aloud by Mr Meakin.
Some of these were the sons of our Founders, who headed off to war only 21 years after the school’s opening in 1918. The First World War, hoped to end all wars, which concluded with an armistice on November 11 that same year, had sadly been the prelude to another European conflagration.
But the Second World War did not remain in Europe and the Middle East like the First.
Malaya (the mainland component of present-day Malaysia) was a key British colony prior to the Second World War. Economically, it was the source of large quantities of natural resources, particularly tin and rubber; and strategically it provided a large defensive barrier to any landward advance on Singapore and its naval base – the cornerstone of British power in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The Japanese leadership, having joined the Axis with Germany and Italy, was well aware of the significance of Malaya and began planning for an invasion in October 1940. It launched this operation with landings on the north-eastern coast of Malaya, at Kota Bharu, at 1.45 am on 8 December 1941; occurring 40 minutes earlier than the raids on Pearl Harbour this was the first major Japanese attack of the Second World War. 10 weeks later Singapore would fall into Japanese hands.
Last week I was at a war memorial in Singapore, the KRANJI WAR CEMETERY where 4,461 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War are buried or commemorated. Within the cemetery stands the SINGAPORE MEMORIAL, bearing the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces who have no known grave.
Of particular significance to me were the 10 gravestones for men from my grandfather’s unit, the Z Special Unit. This special forces unit was formed after the fall of Singapore to infiltrate Japanese controlled harbours and disrupt or destroy shipping by paddling in kayaks during the night and attaching mines to ships before escaping. These 10 were caught in the act of their dangerous mission and executed.
In September 1993 a plaque was installed in the cemetery to remember these men and their mission. My grandfather and grandmother were there on that day, 50 years after the event, to remember his fallen comrades.
As I stood in the cemetery, I was conscious that if my grandfather’s name had been on that wall, then I would not exist.
All wars are terrible and tragic. Each death in them represents a cutting of the branches of the tree humanity, where the flowering of future generations is also lost.
Wars may become part of our history. But war is not history’s end.
In John 14:27, we hear these words from Jesus to his disciples on the night of the Last Supper, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Jesus grants not only peace with God, and peace within ourselves, but promises a peace to come at his return, bringing about God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
As we sing in our hymn, quoting Psalm 46…
Come, see the works of our maker,
Learn of his deeds all-powerful:
Wars will cease across the world
When he shatters the spear.
As Jesus said, “I do not give to you as the world gives.” Jesus does not seek only ‘peace in our time’, but at his return establishes peace for all time.
Our task in the meantime is to tilt the world towards heaven.
Names on walls.
They’re not just there for the people named, they are there for those who come after. To remember their sacrifice, yes, but also to remember our responsibility, to seek peace where it can best be found.
As Jesus taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matt 5:9)
Rod Farraway
Chaplain