Thread: 70th Anniversary of WWII.

70th Anniversary of Britain Declaring War on Germany - September 3, 1939.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/d...00/3493279.stm

And an interesting interview here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8234018.stm

I find it very disturbing people call it a anniversary. Anniversary sounds so happy, like if your working somewhere for 25 years and have a reception 'Happy anniversary!'.

Plus, did the war started with Britain declaring war? Maybe for the Brits but for me the war started in Poland on Septembre 1 1939. But alot of people also include the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (China) to WW2 but in my opinion thats more a prologue, just like the Spanish civil war, etc.

A fair point, I am just quoting the article.

It is the BBC, after all

I believe they are refering to the Declaration of War. Until that point, both sides were trying their hardest not to use the 'W' word ...

I've always thought that the Second World War started with the declaration of war by Britain and France. Don't get me wrong the invasion of Poland was the catalyst after a long build up but for me that was the actual start.

For me it started when China was invaded by Japan. If you're going to go by when the first combatants started, then that's it. So the real anniversary was back in 2007.

I'm not sure why people get offended by Anniversary. It has multiple meanings:

Anniversary means a day that >>commemorates<< and/or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event.

And celebration can be put into context as honoring those who lost their lives in defense of their freedom - giving them proper recognition.

It just gives me wrong feelings.. Can't help it. Maybe because English is not my native language I link it too much to the happy side.

That's most likely it - in the UK we use the word to commemorate things such as death so using it in a WWII context makes more sense to me.