Energy still not up to much, so I finished watching "The Pacific", including the special features, among which were snapshots of the lives of the principal figures in the historical drama. The whole thing is in fact more documentary than drama and the sequences of military action are among the most harrowing you can expect to see, the conditions in the Pacific theatre being particularly grim: constant rain, impenetrable jungle, mud and an enemy in the Japanese that just did not give up, surrender being a matter of dishonour.
The producers did a good job of showing how the Japanese fought, without demonising them. The real enemy in the drama seems to be war itself: brutalising and dehumanising while at the same time being a seeming constant of the human condition, a curse of our nature.
As I get older I lean more towards pacifism, at least as an aspiration, and seek to learn more about what builds peace between individuals and nations.
Tomorrow I go back to UCLH for the first of my regular post- discharge follow-up appointments. Will let you know I get on.
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