Lessons from History

Europe. The Second World War continued for six years, in the course of which both Germany and Japan were forced to sacrifice numerous lives and resources. Towards the end of the war, both countries had suffered massive and widespread devastation. At the end of the war, leaders arose in both these countries, who in their wisdom, saved their people from becoming victims of negative thinking. For example, when the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito addressed his nation on the subject of the Japanese defeat on August 15, 1945, he said in a broadcast on Japan’s national radio: ‘It is according to the dictates of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is unsufferable.’1 This message sent out by Japan’s Emperor, aimed as it was at building a progressive future for the country, indicated a clear-cut line of action to the Japanese people. Thus Japan’s post-war planning did not include preparations for revenge. This peaceful planning worked, and within thirty years, Japan had emerged as the number one country of Asia. Germany’s modern history took a similar course. As the first post-war Chancellor of Germany (1949 – 1963) German statesman Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (1876 – 1967) led his country from the ruins of World War II to being a productive and prosperous nation. A thorough statesman, who spearheaded Germany’s intellectual