July 6

Neither the descriptions of war nor its terrible cruelties and atrocities can stop people from participating in it. One reason for this is that by viewing the atrocities of war, everyone comes to understand that if such a terrible thing can exist and be accepted by people then there must be some reason for its existence.

A witness recounted his experience in the Russian-Japanese war, when he was on the upper deck of the Variag battleship during a Japanese attack. It was a terrible sight. Everywhere there was blood, pieces of flesh, bodies with heads torn away, the smell of blood so strong it made even the most tough and hardest men dizzy.

The armored cannon tower suffered most of all. A shell exploded on top of it and killed a young officer who was the chief of the ship’s artillery. Only one thing was left of the poor man; it was his fist, the hand which held the instrument.

Two of four sailors who stood next to their commander were torn into pieces, and the other two had terrible injuries, afterwards both had their legs amputated, and then the remains of their legs were cut off again completely. The commander of the battleship had a small injury in his head, in the temples. Filth, terrible illnesses, hunger, fire, destruction, evil and this is military glory, this is war.

— Henri Harduin Garduen

War is now more terrible than at any period in human history.

— Guy De Maupassant

The time has come to talk about the evils of war. It is not true that the existence of wars proves their necessity. The history of mankind say that such things should not happen.