50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War last month.

In St. John's Gospel, chapter 15 and verse 13, we read these words of Jesus: "There is no greater love than this, that someone should lay down his life for his friends''.

When the Second World War started, on September 3rd 1939, I had not long passed my fifth birthday. When it ended, on August 14 1945, I had passed my eleventh birthday. More than half of my young life at that point had been lived in wartime.

It made a tremendous impact on me.

I can recall being on the platform at Exeter St. David's station in England when an announcement was made telling us that the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, had declared war on Germany. I have never forgotten the reaction of my parents to that announcement - it was clear that they were expecting it, but their gloom and distress was obvious even to a little child.

I can recall the bombing of England. I can still hear the sound of the air raid warnings, and rushing out to the air raid shelters at school, clutching my gas mask. I remember food rationing. We had 2 ounces of butter per person per week. My mother divided the weekly half pound packet into four pieces, which she then put on individual saucers. We could eat it whenever we wanted to during the week, but when it was gone it was gone. I put all mine on one piece of toast on Saturday and one on Sunday - and went without for the rest of the week. Sugar, meat, eggs - everything it seemed was rationed. I didn't see an orange or a grapefruit throughout the war.

I can recall the gloom caused by the loss of so many ships bringing much-needed supplies of fuel, food, weapons, and raw materials to Britain. In 1942 alone 8 million tons of shipping went down, while 87 German U-boats were sunk. I remember the sense of devastation and loss at the collapse of Britain's European allies, and the fall of Singapore.

I can recall the relief of my parents when the United States of America declared was on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941. I recall the euphoria which greeted General Montgomery's brilliant victory at El Alamein in 1942, and the subsequent invasion of Italy. I remember the satisfaction people felt when the sea battle in the North Atlantic was gradually being won. D Day was a momentous occasion, when the Allied forces poured into France, and the war in Europe moved inexorably to an end.

I can recall hearing waves of aircraft flying out night after night to bomb targets in Germany. I recall, too, watching spellbound as a German rocket -- "doodlebugs'', we called them -- passed over our heads before ploughing into a nearby farmhouse. It blew several thousand one pound notes all over the countryside - money which had been stuffed into a mattress in the farmhouse for safe keeping! When the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and the Second World War ended a few days later, I can picture the unrestrained rejoicing in our part of England. When the news came through I was at a Harvest Camp, where we school children spent our summer holidays picking up potatoes behind the farm tractors and generally helping out on the farms. We ran around shouting with joy that this terrible War was over at last.

When the Second World War ended many of the horrors of modern warfare were revealed.

We heard and read of the cold-blooded ruthless attempt of the Nazis in Germany to wipe out the Jewish population. Millions of Jews - men, women and children - died in the gas chambers and the death camps; by firing squads; through starvation and overwork; and by brutal torture. When the evils of the concentration camps at Belsen and Buchenwald were revealed people were utterly sickened.

We heard and read of some of the excesses of some of the German troops who were occupying countries in Europe; we heard of the activities of the hated and dreaded Gestapo. We heard reports of some of the vile chemical weapons which were being prepared for use when the war came to an end.

Prisoners-of-War returned from Japanese prison camps told hair-raising stories of their imprisonment. They told of the torture, the privations, the starvation rations, the forced labour, and the general brutality of their captors. And the Koreans told how the Japanese took away huge numbers of Korean women to be "comfort women'' for their soldiers.

Six long years of fighting, in many countries; countless millions of service people and civilians killed; countless millions more crippled, or scarred physically, mentally and spiritually; homes shattered; families bereft of loved ones; cruelty, brutality, torture, hatred, and sheer naked evil - this was the Second World War.

It was a war which the Allies had to win, because so much was at stake. As Winston Churchill said, "If we fail, then the world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science''.

The War WAS won. And in 1945 there were very few people who could bring themselves to face the prospect of another war in their lifetime.

But in 1946 Winston Churchill told an audience in the United States that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent (of Europe).'' He was referring to the menacing expansion of the influence of the Soviet Union, and its attempts to dominate Europe and the rest of the world. It posed a threat to the whole free world, and started a Cold War which continued until the collapse of Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 1990's.

Churchill also said that "peace with Germany and Japan on our terms will not bring much rest ... As I observed last time'', he said, "when the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin''. In the 50 years since the end of the Second World War there have been localised wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Falkland Islands, the Arabian Gulf, and other places. And there have been bitter internal conflicts in the Congo, South West Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Bosnia, Russia, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and other places.

The truth that war is horrible and infinitely damaging is being absorbed very slowly, if at all.

As Christian people it is important that we should be clear in our own minds as to what we think about war in general, and about past wars, especially the Second World War, in particular.

First, let's consider our attitude to war in general.

We need to take account of the teaching of the Bible as a whole, and especially our Lord Jesus Christ's teaching. We also need to beware of taking verses of Scripture out of their context. Certain basic principles stand out.

The use of force should be a last resort, not a first option.

Negotiation and seeking agreement should come first.

The value, dignity and freedom of every human being must be safeguarded.

God's chosen people, the Israelites, were involved in a succession of wars as they sought to establish themselves in the Promised Land. One of the 10 Commandments they received from God was that they should not commit murder.

But the defence and protection of home, family, country, and freedom often required the use of force.

Each of us needs to work out our own position regarding the use of force. When I was invited to become a Chaplain in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, and to serve on a base where there were 800 Junior Recruits aged 16 preparing to serve in the Fleet, I knew that I would have to be able to answer their questions honestly. I came to the conclusion that I was prepared not only to counsel young men who might well have to kill in the course of their duties, but also that I would myself be prepared to defend the use of force in a righteous cause. I accepted the invitation.

Now let's consider our attitude towards the Second World War in particular. It was a war which to be fought and won, if people all over the world were to be free to live and love and laugh. It is right that we should be proud of, and grateful to, those who gave their today for our tomorrow. Many of them died in the process. Some of them survive to this day. We are very proud of you. And we are very grateful to you.

It is right, too, that we should be prepared to forgive; to realise that any of us can make disastrous mistakes; and to realise that our Christian faith is the religion of the second, third, and fourth chance! We should be prepared to let the past be the past; and to accept our former enemies as children of God like ourselves.

I want to finish with two true stories which illustrate what I mean. In 1971 I was posted to Fremantle in Western Australia by The Missions to Seamen. I was to have overall charge of the six seafarers' centres operated by the Anglican Church in the State.

When I went to visit the seafarers' centre at Geraldton, 300 miles North of Perth, I met the Lay Reader in charge, Bob Shinn. Bob was in his mid 60's, and partially deaf.

During my first evening in the centre two Japanese seamen walked in. Bob got up from his chair to greet them. He made them most welcome, and they responded to his obvious pleasure of seeing them. He made a great impression on them.

It was months late that I learned that Bob had been a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese for three long years, and that his deafness was the result of brutal ill-treatment of the Prisoner-of-War camp. I thought back to the way he had greeted the Japanese seamen, and I thought, "Here's a man who has forgiven, even if he hasn't forgotten.'' The second story concerns a Japanese seaman.

In 1945 John Watanabe was 18 years old. He was the Senior Cadet at the Japanese Naval base outside Hiroshima. He was being trained to handle one of the midget suicide submarines.

When the atomic bomb dropped he saw the flash and heard the explosion. A few days later the war was over. The sailors were all sent home. John's journey to his home in the north of Japan began in the city of Hiroshima.

What he saw there appalled him. The bodies of the dead were still lying in the streets, decomposing. Naked survivors, badly burned, wandered aimlessly through the streets. The devastation was stupendous.

When he got home to his mother and sister his mother was dying. He tried to get a job to support them. But nobody would employ an ex-serviceman, because they were in disgrace for losing the war. When his mother died there was no money to pay for the funeral. He contemplated suicide. The Christian doctor who had treated her paid for her funeral himself. He also gave John and his sister a New Testament. He said to them: "I hope that this will come to mean as much to you as it does to me''. He continued to visit them at regular intervals.

A year later John and his sister were baptized into the Christian faith. Two years after that he was ordained into the ministry of the Anglican Church in Japan, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. At the age of 44 he became bishop of Hokkaido.

At 60 he joined The Missions to Seamen as a chaplain.

He was posted to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He learned to speak Swahili in addition to English and Japanese. For seven years he visited the ships on food every working day. He was greatly loved and respected -- because he loved people so much himself. And it was he and his brother Bishops in Japan who fought long and hard for the Japanese Government to apologise for its war record.

From evil good can emerge.

"There is no greater love than this, that someone should lay down his life for his friends''.