The Potsdam Declaration

"On July 26 [1945] the United States, Great Britain and China issued the Potsdam Declaration calling on Japan to end the war on the basis of unconditional surrender. The terms called for elimination from authority those responsible for the war; occupation of Japan; limitation of Japanese sovereignty to the Japanese islands; complete disarmament; punishment of war crimes; political reform; and restriction on Japanese industries."

- "Japan: A Short History," Misiko Hane, Oneworld Publications, 2000.

Hermann Goering

I seem to be on a bit of a WWII kick this week, so to add to the post on Vichy France here is a quote from German politician Hermann Goering. He was a member of the Nazi Party, and this quote shows well that party's policy of control and manipulation. This quote comes from during the Nuremberg trials after WWII.

“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. …Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Gustav Giblert: Nuremberg Diaries
 

Goering committed suicide in 1946 just two hours before his execution.

Attica

                                     Arcadia, Thomas Eakins, c1883

"There is perhaps no part of Europe, which more deservedly...excites the curiosity of the Lovers of polite Literature than...Attica, and Athens its Capital City: whether we reflect on the Figure it makes in History, on account of the excellent men it has produced in every Art...or whether we consider the Antiquities which are said to be still remaining there...the most perfect Models of what is excellent in Sculpture and Architecture."

 - James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, in  The Victorians and Ancient Greece, R.Jenkins, Harvard University Press, 1980

Quote: Alcmaeon of Croton - c500BC

'About what is invisible, about what is mortal, the gods have clear knowledge, but to us as men, only inference on what is coming is possible.'

Quote: Thucydides

'It will be enough for me, however, if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future. My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever.' 

 Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War,  I:22