Out of the Mouths of Babes
Created | Updated Mar 10, 2005
What's wrong, Dear? Bad day at school?
I'm OK, Dad.
You don't look very cheerful, young lady. What about a smile?
I learned something horrible today, Dad.
Really? What was that then?
We were doing about the Second World War in history.
Yes, wars are pretty horrible. But that one was a long time ago, so you mustn't get upset about it.
Oh. Don't you think we should remember it, then?
Well, yes. We should remember it. It was very important that we did what we did in that war.
We were the good side, then?
Yes, definitely. Hitler was evil. There was the Holocaust. The Japanese did some terrible things, too.
Like Osama Bin Laden is evil?
Yes. Like that. When bad people do bad things, the rest of the world has to stop them.
Osama Bin Laden used aeroplanes to kill people in a big city, didn't he? People who had nothing to do with any war?
Yes. That's right. That was a terrible thing. We can't let that happen, you see?
But we did the same thing in the Second World War, and you said we were the good side.
No we didn't. Where did you get that idea?
We used aeroplanes to attack cities, didn't we?
No. It didn't happen the same way. The aeroplanes only dropped bombs.
Why is that different?
It is different, Dear. The whole thing was different.
How? Were the people in the cities soldiers?
No, but they were fighting the war in a way. They were supporting the enemy.
Wouldn't Osama Bin Laden say the same thing?
Yes, maybe, but he's wrong! Very wrong. You mustn't compare things like that, Dear.
Why not, Dad? I can't understand the difference.
More than three thousand people died in the Twin Towers, Darling. They went to work on a normal day, and they were killed in a horrible way.
Our teacher said eighty thousand people were killed in a place called Dresden. And more than that in a place called Hiroshima. People who were hurt by the atomic bombs were still dying many years after the war was finished. And it wasn't just one day in the Second World War. It was night after night, again and again.
No, Darling, you really mustn't think like that. It was different, it really was.
I want to understand, Dad. It's just that it seems that both things were just as bad. Please explain why it was different when we did it, because I really don't understand.
It was different because... we were fighting for a just cause.
OK, Dad.
Do you understand now, Dear?
Yes. I think so.
Do you? It's important that you believe it, you see.
I do believe it, because you said it. I know I have to accept it now. One day, when I'm older, I'll really understand the difference, just like you do...
