The “Statement on Entering Prison” by David Dellinger gave me a deeper look at World War II

and war in general. I have always felt that there must be a better solution than putting
humanity against itself resulting in multiple deaths and separation of families and loved ones.
However, I am not naïve and I am not blind to the violence and evil that does exist in the world.
Especially in today’s world and what we see happening in other countries, even in our own, it
seems that violence will be the only way to get the point across. It seems like nobody wants to
speak peacefully and cease the violence and multiple deaths of our own people. It really is a
shame, but I do agree with Dellinger that there is nothing good about war. It is an absolute
source of violence and evil that consists of lies, self-righteousness, and pure hatred.
Dellinger brought to light the true reasons America was brought into World War II in the first
place. These are things I never thought to consider, but the facts are surprising and support the
belief that a country in war cannot be rightly justified. All countries involved are fully
responsible for the numerous deaths soldiers sacrificed for their countries because of their
economic supremacy ideologies, selfish nationalism, dishonesty, and opportunism. In Germany
and Italy, their oppression of the people and obstruction of democracy by refusing social and
economic equality in order to gain power and make profits was their justification for bringing
their country to war. Meanwhile, the United States and Japan were trying to get involved in a
war with each other before Pearl Harbor even happened. From America’s point of view, we
needed a rise in nationalism and a support for the war, so the Pearl Harbor attack was the
perfect excuse to have absolute hatred for another country and love for our own. Roosevelt,
felt we needed to go into war because America was in a massive economic depression, decline
of employment, and social unrest, and these things could be fixed by going into war. Roosevelt
was right, but was war the best solution? It was selfish to go into war on those conditions
because of all the permanent damage that was left on the world and future generations from
this war including the tragic losses of men, women, and children from both sides of the battle
field. Dellinger points out there can never be a happy medium between love and war… there
can only be extremes of either or.
Unfortunately, this is the reality of war and I don’t think there will ever be a better solution to
this. War will always be the ultimate decision to either benefit the country or destroy it. After
reading this point of view, I can’t help but think of the people of Japan that were killed by an
atomic bomb explosion even though they had no connection to the war. The only connection
they had was that they lived in the opposing country, and I think it’s a real shame that they lost
their lives without even getting a fighting chance for survival.