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The Japanese original is vague on who "we" is, but the English translation tactfully refers to mankind as a whole.

Families come from all over Japan in a pilgrimage to visit the peace shrine. They look through the Cenotaph to the "A-Dome", the old Industrial Promotion Hall. This six-story building that was directly below the blast, 600 meters above, and for that reason survived as a gaunt half-wrecked structure when almost everything else was flattened instantly for a radius of two kilometres.

They walk through the museum in total silence learning the details of what happened on August 1945, and the gruesome aftermath. The learn about the 2000 degree heat shock that lasted three seconds and incinerated anybody in the epicentre instantly, but left those in the suburbs to die more slowly with burnt skin hanging from their bodies.

They read the day-by-day diaries of the survivors, and the second shock of radiation a week or so later as they came out in a rash of purple spots, and started to vomit their inner organs. Some 140,000 were dead within five months, mostly civilians, including Korean and Chinese forced labourers.

This is what the Japanese are brought up on, so different from the "Patriotic Education" campaign in China for the last twenty years. Beijing's policy has whipped up revanchist hatred against the Japanese for the sins of the 1930s and 1940s, no doubt to divert popular wrath away from a Communist Party tarnished by corruption.

Japan's national ideology is pacifist, and this is written into Article 9 of its constitution, which states that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."

This peace complex adds a strange twist to events. It inhibits Japan as a muscular China presses its claim on the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands -- a cluster of uninhabited rocks near Taiwan -- and as Chinese warships push deep into Japanese waters.

Standuble wrote:Peace has always been a luxury and it seems that it is increasingly becoming a luxury the world is less and less able to afford.

My question is how exactly does one prepare for World War in their preps or how would a global conflict cause a chance in personal contingency planning? If a land invasion of the British Isles were to occur then we would perhaps have to surrender - a small, off-grid transition community which wants nothing to do with the war would be treated as a potential partisan resistance area and would be forced to a close. The alternative - leaving everything and running off to hide in the wood should be part of your preparations IMO either way as peace time would still allow thieves and violent gangs.

What sort of changes did you have in mind?

stevecook172001 wrote:

Standuble wrote:Peace has always been a luxury and it seems that it is increasingly becoming a luxury the world is less and less able to afford.

My question is how exactly does one prepare for World War in their preps or how would a global conflict cause a chance in personal contingency planning? If a land invasion of the British Isles were to occur then we would perhaps have to surrender - a small, off-grid transition community which wants nothing to do with the war would be treated as a potential partisan resistance area and would be forced to a close. The alternative - leaving everything and running off to hide in the wood should be part of your preparations IMO either way as peace time would still allow thieves and violent gangs.

What sort of changes did you have in mind?

There is no way to personally prepare for world war as a civilian other than the kind of preparations people are already doing on here. On the political front, as a civilian, be a part of promoting a collective public policy and culture. In a world of every man for himself, every one but a privileged few loses out.

In terms of preparing for a world war where there is a possibility you may be conscripted, you may see this as a good thing since you may be more likely to get three square meals and a bed as compared to your civilian counterpart. On the other hand, you may be more likely to be killed in combat. If you don't fancy that, bugger one of your feet up or deafen yourself in one of your ears I suppose. Either that or be clever enough that you prove too valuable to be used as cannon fodder.

Standuble wrote:Peace has always been a luxury and it seems that it is increasingly becoming a luxury the world is less and less able to afford.

Korea is the focus, but this is China versus Japan

Beijing has absolute control over North Korea. The crisis is all about disputed islands and the security of oil supplies