World War II was a cataclysmic event of proportions unfathomable by anyone, especially those who did not live through it. My Mom and Dad, like many of our parents, did. My father served on active combat duty from before Pearl Harbor until the end of the war.

The injustice, the carnage, the displacement, the horror and death that came with that war is beyond measure. From Dunkirk to Pearl Harbor, from Tarawa to Omaha Beach, from Bataan to Burma, from Stalingrad to Krakow, from Auschwitz to Hiroshima, the horror of man’s ability to destroy was unleashed on a level never before imagined.

To expend one additional ounce of effort trying to compare or elevate one portion of this tragedy over another is a fool’s errand. Bainbridge Island would do well to put all conflict and recrimination regarding every aspect of the war’s fallout aside and give thanks that a merciful God delivered the world into this time of peace that we have come to expect as normal.

Philip G. McCrudden

Rose Loop