Paoli High School

Paoli, Oklahoma           

War and Peace

Tara Fisher

12^th

The road to war began in the early 1930’s when problems over China tore the United States and Japan apart.  With Japan trying to conquer China and the United States trying to help China, it became a dispute between Japan and the United States.  Battles began back and forth with neither one wanting to give up.  Then on December 7, 1941 Japan made their move and attacked Pearl Harbor.  The Japanese attacked around sun up that fateful morning.  While almost the entire population of Hawaii was asleep part of their island was being demolished.  The United States had no idea what had hit them.[i] They knew something was going to happen they just did not know when or where.  The attack on Pearl Harbor and other past battles and wars did not lead to peace, and wars we will fight in the future will not lead to peace either.

            “History teaches us that when a barbarian race confronts a sleeping culture, the barbarian race always wins” is a quote by Arnold Toynbee.  Toynbee accomplished many things in his lifetime.  He was an English Historian educated at Oxford.  He served in the British foreign office during World War I and World War II.  He was also a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference.  He was Professor of the Greek language and history at the University of London.  Director of studies at the Royal Institution of International Affairs was also a part of his duties.  Being a prolific scholar he was able to gain fame for his monumental work, A Study of History.  Toynbee has been criticized for arbitrary generalizations, factorial errors, and overemphasizing the regenerative force of religion.

            Not every time the barbarian will win.  They might win that battle but they might not win the whole war.  Take the attack on Pearl Harbor for an example.  Japan might have won that battle but they didn’t win the war. 

Just because the sleeping culture does not know what hit them at the time, a strong sleeping culture will be able to come back from an attack even harder.  When the sleeping culture over comes diversity it will make them even stronger.  Take the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon for example.  At first we just thought that it was an accidental crash until the next two crashes and a hijack occurred.  The terrorism on the United States has made the country stronger and more has a whole, making the United States a bigger task to overcome.  So just because a barbarian race attacks a sleeping culture does not guarantee a definite win for the barbarian race.

“My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions.  As soon as men will find that in one instant whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace” is a quote by Alfred Nobel.  Nobel was a chemist and a philanthropist and also the inventor of dynamite.  He received his education in Saint Petersburg, Russia and then studied medical engineering in the United States.  After he finished his study of medical engineering he went back to Saint Petersburg and worked under his father.  Together they developed mines, torpedoes, and other explosives.  They had a family owned factory in Helen Borg, Sweden.  Nobel wanted to develop a safe way to handle nitroglycerin after a factory explosion killed his brother in 1864.  So in 1867 he finally achieved his goal by using an organic packing material to reduce the volatility of the nitroglycerin, he came up with what is now called dynamite.

            Dynamite will not necessarily lead to peace.  If someone blows up someone or something then more times than not it will lead to battle.  The ones who get blown up will try to get back at the one who blew them up.  When Pearl Harbor was attacked, the United States might not have been attacked by dynamite, but nonetheless they were attacked and they fought back.  When the United States was attacked at New York City and Washington D.C. what did they do?  They fought back.  So how can dynamite lead to peace rather than talking a situation out?  How can blowing something up lead to peace?  Dynamite will not lead to peace.

            In conclusion, peace may come to the world, but the way things are going now it may not be soon.  Dynamite will not help and attacking different countries will not help.  Even though we may never have peace throughout the world, we can try to make our country and our lives as close to peace as we can.  World War I and II did not bring peace and other wars have not brought peace so what makes us think that a World War III or IV will bring peace?

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