Saw a three-hour long TV drama today called 'The sinking of the Laconia.' It's a true story about a British ship 'Laconia' that was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in 1942. Before clicking the play button, I expected for just another war story, but just after thirty minutes I found that I was wrong. It's a story not just about war but about how humans can be humane in one of the most inhumane settings - a war. Although captain Werner Hartenstein could have just let go the lives of his enemy countries, he tried all his best to save as many lives as possible even when he was leading a warship, U-156, the famous German submarine.
After watching the drama, I asked myself how I would behave if I were in Hartenstein's shoes. Could I resist the temptation to just build up my reputation as an able military commander? Could I risk my reputation and my ship by getting the enemy-side people on my ship on board? How could I deal with the unspoken resistance or reluctance of my crew? Could I be able report the general exactly as I did? Could I send SOS signals to the enemies despite the fatal risk?....Maybe not. If I were leading a warship during the WWII, I would have gone passying by the vulnerable lives on the sea just hoping for the best luck for them. And I must have justified to myself that it's the thing I should do as a patriotic soldier.
Maybe even now, I might be justifying the way I think and behave with too a narrow perspective. It is true that I am a Korea, a small country in the far east Asia and it's also true that I'm just a normal person without special super capabilities. But such truth cannot predefine how I should live my life. Captain Hartenstein would not have done so if he only had cared about his roles as a commander. He deserves respect and honour because he thought and behaved as a big human just not as a small military commander.
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