final draft
Ayaha Ikezawa
Mr.Pangier/Mr.Shaffer
European Literature/European History
5 April 2016
Just War Theory
Justification. That’s an act of giving righteous reasons for something to happen. War. That’s a fight between huge groups of people, that happens for a certain purpose. Essentially, it’s brutal. War generally sounds cruel, unright and inhumane. It’s a fight. It’s one gigantic group of people trying to knock one another for their own sake. So is justification of war possible?
According to Thomas Aquinas, there needs to be several rules to justify warfare. One of them is that “war must occur for a good and just purpose rather than for self-gain”(Aquinas, Sum ll-ll, Q40. A1). Just purposes meaning as punishment, or taking back lost territory and lost property. It also means war is unjust when it has a purpose such as invasion. Another rule is this: “Third, peace must be a central motive even in the midst of violence”(Aquinas, Sum ll-ll, Q40. A1). Whatever way a war starts, it will always end in peace, and that should be the most prioritized purpose. This is an opinion that the United Nations agree: “All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.” (United-Nations). The international agreement was conducted in year 1945, when the World War 2 ended. Since then, human strived for peace by unifying themselves across borders.
However, even if we follow those rules, warfare is a hard idea to justify. Even if it has rules and righteous purpose to it, it’s content still remains just some violence to one another. As we can see in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, warfare creates unjust, tragedies, destruction to all kinds of people. Referring to How to Read like a Professor, violence in a novel does not just mean violence, but has meanings beyond it. Deaths in All Quiet are not just facts, but symbols of war. It’s a disaster. It produces uncountable number of victims. Those includes the civilians of course, but also soldiers sent to battle-fields counts. So agrees Remarque: “The war has ruined us for everything”(Remarque 87). The World War 1, which endured for 4 years, did not just killed several millions of soldiers, but also took away life experiences and time of billions of young soldiers.
The World War 1 was the war that the Remarque himself experienced. It was the war that most of the nations followed Aquinas’ rule, having just purposes and aim for peace as the “war to end all wars”. However, as a consequence, it caused the most number of deaths in all wars. It killed many innocent civilians, but also young soldiers, millions of them. Was World War 1 just? Absolutely not.
As long as warfare takes shape as it is now, it will definitely include violence, which means, unnecessary deaths and tragedy: “I have killed a printer, Gerald Duval. I must be a printer, I think confusedly, be a printer, printer--”(Remarque 225). In the novel, protagonist Paul is weary yet conflicting to the fact that he has to become a murderer, for his nation’s justice. Yet, murder is one of the worst scene in human history. In any way, the act of murder can not be justified in human culture.
We can always include rules to attempt justification of warfare; but I don’t think that’s enough. As long as wars include numerous deaths and murders, we cannot beckon to call it justice. A suggestion from Remarque, presented in the novel, is that “war should be a kind of popular festival with entrance-tickets and bands, like a bull fight. Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers and armed with clubs, can have it out among themselves. Whoever survives, his country wins. That would be much simpler and more just than this arrangement, where the wrong people do the fighting”(Remarque 41). There is no need of extra victims in war, to decide one fight between nations. In a much simpler, smaller scale, war can be fought under rules, for their own purposes: that’s how war can be justified.
Mr.Pangier/Mr.Shaffer
European Literature/European History
5 April 2016
Just War Theory
Justification. That’s an act of giving righteous reasons for something to happen. War. That’s a fight between huge groups of people, that happens for a certain purpose. Essentially, it’s brutal. War generally sounds cruel, unright and inhumane. It’s a fight. It’s one gigantic group of people trying to knock one another for their own sake. So is justification of war possible?
According to Thomas Aquinas, there needs to be several rules to justify warfare. One of them is that “war must occur for a good and just purpose rather than for self-gain”(Aquinas, Sum ll-ll, Q40. A1). Just purposes meaning as punishment, or taking back lost territory and lost property. It also means war is unjust when it has a purpose such as invasion. Another rule is this: “Third, peace must be a central motive even in the midst of violence”(Aquinas, Sum ll-ll, Q40. A1). Whatever way a war starts, it will always end in peace, and that should be the most prioritized purpose. This is an opinion that the United Nations agree: “All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.” (United-Nations). The international agreement was conducted in year 1945, when the World War 2 ended. Since then, human strived for peace by unifying themselves across borders.
However, even if we follow those rules, warfare is a hard idea to justify. Even if it has rules and righteous purpose to it, it’s content still remains just some violence to one another. As we can see in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, warfare creates unjust, tragedies, destruction to all kinds of people. Referring to How to Read like a Professor, violence in a novel does not just mean violence, but has meanings beyond it. Deaths in All Quiet are not just facts, but symbols of war. It’s a disaster. It produces uncountable number of victims. Those includes the civilians of course, but also soldiers sent to battle-fields counts. So agrees Remarque: “The war has ruined us for everything”(Remarque 87). The World War 1, which endured for 4 years, did not just killed several millions of soldiers, but also took away life experiences and time of billions of young soldiers.
The World War 1 was the war that the Remarque himself experienced. It was the war that most of the nations followed Aquinas’ rule, having just purposes and aim for peace as the “war to end all wars”. However, as a consequence, it caused the most number of deaths in all wars. It killed many innocent civilians, but also young soldiers, millions of them. Was World War 1 just? Absolutely not.
As long as warfare takes shape as it is now, it will definitely include violence, which means, unnecessary deaths and tragedy: “I have killed a printer, Gerald Duval. I must be a printer, I think confusedly, be a printer, printer--”(Remarque 225). In the novel, protagonist Paul is weary yet conflicting to the fact that he has to become a murderer, for his nation’s justice. Yet, murder is one of the worst scene in human history. In any way, the act of murder can not be justified in human culture.
We can always include rules to attempt justification of warfare; but I don’t think that’s enough. As long as wars include numerous deaths and murders, we cannot beckon to call it justice. A suggestion from Remarque, presented in the novel, is that “war should be a kind of popular festival with entrance-tickets and bands, like a bull fight. Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers and armed with clubs, can have it out among themselves. Whoever survives, his country wins. That would be much simpler and more just than this arrangement, where the wrong people do the fighting”(Remarque 41). There is no need of extra victims in war, to decide one fight between nations. In a much simpler, smaller scale, war can be fought under rules, for their own purposes: that’s how war can be justified.
works cited
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A. W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. Print.
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 5 vols. Westminster: Christian Classics, 1948. Print.
United Nations. Charter of the United Nations. N.p.: n.p., 1945. Print.
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 5 vols. Westminster: Christian Classics, 1948. Print.
United Nations. Charter of the United Nations. N.p.: n.p., 1945. Print.
changes
My advisor was Yuri and Adnan. Both commented that some of my paragraphs need more explanation, so I elaborated them. They pointed out few grammar mistakes and awkward sentences, so I fixed them. Also, I was repeating listing things in my sentence too many times, so I cut some of them out.