I note that the dispute between these two countries over several small islands is escalating.

We have learned repeatedly from history that brinkmanship can, on the back of some small incident, cascade a dispute into unintentional outright warfare. It would be a tragedy if this were to happen yet again and young men and women were sent out once more to kill each other – over what – a few small islands! And on the wider world picture will the USA be drawn into this issue? And what attitude will Korea (North or South) take towards this difficulty close to them?

Both China and Japan need help to draw back from this dispute without either losing face.

The solution does not necessarily have to be left to politicians, which in the end can easily fail to achieve a peaceful outcome. We have learned that too from history.

But what if we, citizens of the world, in our hundreds of thousands, and indeed in numbers greater than that, were to partition both countries to agree that the disputed islands and the surrounding seas should be turned into a national park to be run jointly by both countries or under the management of the United Nations? 

This would lance the boil of ‘ownership’ and allow these two fine countries to remain at peace.

We could achieve this up-welling of world opinion towards such a solution and succeed in persuading both countries towards this compromise – provided we join our voices in sufficient numbers to make this peaceful outcome for these islands inevitable.

If reading this and are in agreement with the sentiment expressed, you might wish to re-tweet and re-blog to others this idea and that they in turn would be encouraged to contact others still to generate a chain reaction around the world towards this cause – would that not be a noble thing that all of us would have engaged in? China and Japan – and wildlife too would benefit from this effort from all of us.  

Together such an opinion expressed by great numbers of people could make the difference by allowing these two countries to see a practical alternative to war.

Patrick.