"Lest we forget..."

94 years ago, on this very day, some 2,000 brave, young men of ANZAC (Australia & New Zealand) landed on the beaches of Gallipoli. Thus began the treacherous campaign against the Turks which lasted 9 months and killed more than 10,000 ANZAC troops. For their bravery, mateship, and sacrifice, Australia commemorates 25th April as ANZAC Day - a day that celebrates not just that very spirit and to acknowledge the service of ANZAC veterans but also to recognize the service that personnel from all services contributes to present-day nation building, especially those who had served Australia in times of war.

I'd Just returned from the ANZAC Day dawn service at the Australian War Memorial. Ceremonially speaking, ANZAC day starts at 5:30 am, which was the approximate time the Gallipoli campaign began, with the dawn service. According to ABC, this year's ceremony was attended by "tens of thousands". There was indeed a lot of people but I had absolutely no idea it was THAT many. No wonder the guy beside me commented, "You don't even see that many people at a game in Canberra." Amongst the crowd was Kevin Rudd. Another thing I'd not expect as he was at the National Ceremony (which starts at 10:15 am) last year.

The dawn service was an extremely solemn ceremony - flags flew at half-mast, servicemen and women attended in their ceremonial attire, floodlights were switched off, "candle" torches were "lit", heads bowed and the occasional sobbing could be heard. Somewhere in the midst of the service, I saw the wife of the guy beside me taking out pieces of tissue. I've heard various people spoken about the price of peace, from the ex-United States Secretary of Defense, William Perry to ex-Iranian President, H.E. Dr Seyed Mohammad Khatami to ex-tutor of Kim II-Sung and Kim Jung-II, Dr Kim Hyun-Sik, to 森健太廊's (Mori Kentaro) mother-in-law, a witness of World War II. Listening to personal accounts required my imagination but attending today's dawn service allowed me to witness yet another facet to the meaning of "the price of peace". As a student majoring in security studies, I find that extremely important. Especially if I were to go into a relevant line of work... It's really "lest we forget"...

Zzzz... I'm going to bed now. If I still have energy, then perhaps I might return to the Australian War Memorial and lay a poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier.

p.s. With regards to the previous post, I'm glad I made some mistakes... proves I is not that オタク (otaku). and just to reinforce that, I had to use wiki to recall some of the names of the characters. But I'm quite disappointed in not being able to spot Chi though. :(