Tonight the fight will stop, and we'll celebrate

Finding peace if only for one night

Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Dragon Night” by the Tokyo pop group Sekai no Owari. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1. You can listen to each article of “Social Issues in Song” on the Substack App.

(452 words)
The Christmas Truce

Many young people might not know the story of a truce that happened during World War I. Something special happened on Christmas Eve in 1914. British and German soldiers, who were enemies, decided to stop fighting for a short time. It started when the British soldiers heard the Germans singing and saw lanterns in their trenches on Christmas Eve. The next day, they met in the middle. This was called “No man’s land” because neither side had captured it. They exchanged gifts, took pictures, and even played football. Some soldiers were not happy about it, and military leaders tried to stop it from happening again. Even though there were a few more times when soldiers took short breaks from fighting, it didn't happen a lot. They called it the “Live and Let Live” system in some quiet areas where both sides agreed to pause and fix their trenches. (1)

Trench (WikiMedia Commons)

A song about a ceasefire

The song today is about that truce. The singer might be recalling what was happening on that night in 1914.

Today is the day when the sun sets on our home
Finally the night will come out to say hello
Oh, the war that never ends still wages on today
But tonight the fight will stop and we'll celebrate

The singer stops to think about what the other person is feeling. He asks what that person’s values are and wonders if he could understand them.
Everybody has their own version of what's just
Maybe war is something that is natural for us
But even the people that fill me with hate
Have their reasons to live their life that way

Dragon night, dragon night, dragon night
Tonight all of us will sing together like we're best of friends
Moonlight, starry skies, fire birds
Tonight let's dance, everybody, until the sunrise

Maybe there is a way that the soldiers themselves can put an end to the conflict. Most of them did not decide to start the conflict.
Today is the day when the sun sets on our home
Finally the night will come out to say hello
Oh, the war that never ends continues for eternity
But tonight the fire burns to show that we've made peace

The singer starts to realize that the reasons he’s been told for the conflict (the justice that I have come to believe in) is creating the war he is participating in. That “justice” is hurting everyone, not just soldiers of the other side.
Everybody has their own version of what's just
Maybe war is something that is natural for us
But the justice that I have come to believe in
Must be hurting others more than I can comprehend

American and German soldiers during a ceremony remembering WWII. LaCamera said, “70 years ago, we stood here as enemies; today we stand here as friends, as comrades.” (National Library of Scotland, Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

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Question

What would happen if soldiers on both sides refused to fight in a conflict? Are there other ways to resolve conflicts?

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Vocabulary

truce 休戦
trench 溝
ceasefire 一時休戦
to wage war 戦争を仕掛ける
eternity 永遠
justice (n.) 正義　just (adj.)
comprehend 理解する

Source

(1) The Real Story of the Christmas Truce. Imperial War Museums. 2023. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce#:~:text=Late%20on%20Christmas%20Eve%201914,be%20shouted%20between%20the%20trenches. Accessed 7 De 2023.

Background info in first paragraph reposted from an earlier post: https://louisehaynes.substack.com/p/no-mans-land

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All of the articles about the songs will remain free for students to use. (We are all students, are we not?) However, if you find these articles useful and are in a position to make a small (or large) donation, I would be deeply grateful.

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