# Are there other countries where the losing side in a war is still celebrated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 3, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318 "2012-08-03T16:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/41 "2012-08-03T21:32:51Z")
When I think of it, when do Germans celebrate their fallen soldiers (assuming they do)? ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/42 "2012-08-03T21:56:29Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Yeah, you really don’t know much about the events of and leading upto Oct 1973 do you? Or various war aims? Don’t be coy. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/43 "2012-08-04T01:55:23Z")
Heh, out of curiosity, I checked out holidays in Taiwan, and they appear to have at least 10 days celebrating their utter defeat by communists. They also seem to be celebrating the handover from one imperialist government to another, and failed uprisings that were crushed. Actually, I don’t any of the Taiwanese holidays celebrates a victory. 😃 > **[Public holidays in Taiwan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Taiwan)** > > The following are considered holidays in Taiwan. Some are official holidays, and some are not: > The following holidays are also observed on Taiwan but are not official holidays observed by civil servants of the central government. Some sectors of the workforce may have time off on some of the following holidays, such as Labor Day, Armed Forces Day, and Teachers' Day. > Before 1949, a number of public holidays were celebrated by certain ethnic minorities in regions within the ROC, which were de... South Korea has [Armed Forces Day](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Day), which is apparently celebrating the stalemate between North and South Korea. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/44 "2012-08-04T02:31:02Z")
Catalonia’s national holiday (on September 11, incidentally) commemorates a major defeat: the fall of Barcelona in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/45 "2012-08-04T02:38:18Z")
Another along the lines of Cinco de Mayo is one of the biggest holidays in Cuba, the 26th of July, which commemorates the disastrous [assault on the Moncada Barracks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncada_Barracks) by rebels led by Fidel Castro. The attack was a fiasco, and most of the rebels were killed or captured. Castro himself was imprisoned and later exiled. Cuba celebrates its Armed Forces day on December 2, commemorating the equally disastrous landing of Castro in Cuba on the yacht _Granma_ on his return from exile in 1956. The landing was a virtual shipwreck, and Castro’s men were soon ambushed and decimated by Batista forces. But he and a few others escaped to launch a successful rebellion from the mountains. Cuba celebrates its Independence day on October 10, commemorating the beginning of its first war of independence in 1868, which failed. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/46 "2012-08-04T02:39:39Z")
Well. Pearl Harbor - won the war, but lost that battle. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Tilt\_Boogie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Full\_Tilt\_Boogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Tilt_Boogie)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/47 "2012-08-04T02:43:05Z")
The Argentinians still celebrate losing the recent unpleasantness (1982). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/48 "2012-08-04T02:57:33Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Well. Pearl Harbor - won the war, but lost that battle. Hardly a national holiday, though. There’s a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, but it’s pretty low key. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/49 "2012-08-04T02:58:57Z")
I think you’d have to put the various right wing ultra nationalist groups in Japan under this category. > **[Uyoku dantai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai)** > > Uyoku dantai (右翼団体, lit. 'right wing groups') refers to Japanese ultranationalist far-right activists, provocateurs, and internet trolls (as netto-uyoku) often organized in groups. In 1996 and 2013, the National Police Agency estimated that there were over 1,000 right-wing groups in Japan with about 100,000 members in total. > Uyoku dantai are well known for their highly visible propaganda vehicles, known as gaisensha (街宣車, converted vans, trucks and buses fitted with loudspeakers and prominently ... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/50 "2012-08-04T03:00:46Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > …Yet now, it is Franco’s legacy that has been largely pushed aside (not forgotten, but not widely celebrated) in Spanish culture, which there are many Spaniards who celebrate and support the ideals of the Republican forces. In a stable, multiparty constitutional monarchy led by a king whom Franco placed on the throne! ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/51 "2012-08-04T03:05:23Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Hardly a national holiday, though. There’s a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, but it’s pretty low key. Wasn’t aware it had to be popular. Memorial Day was originally designed for Union AND Confederate soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/52 "2012-08-04T03:10:51Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Wasn’t aware it had to be popular. The OP says “celebrated.” ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/53 "2012-08-04T03:11:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The OP says “celebrated.” Well, where I grew up, it was. The OP also mentions the quirks of the South, something that’s always been a bit foreign and strange to me. edit: Since flags are flown at half-staff across the US, I think that’s enough. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/54 "2012-08-04T08:05:36Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > When I think of it, when do Germans celebrate their fallen soldiers (assuming they do)? I don’t think there is a day, but there is a place. [Neue Wache](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Wache) (“the New Guardhouse”) on Unter den Linden in Berlin is the national memorial for “Victims of War and Tyranny” - essentially all who died in the two World Wars, regardless of who they were and why they were killed. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/55 "2012-08-04T08:18:07Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Heh, out of curiosity, I checked out holidays in Taiwan, and they appear to have at least 10 days celebrating their utter defeat by communists. Which ones are those, pray? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/56 "2012-08-04T16:32:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > The Irish have romanticized their failures and defeats at least as much as Southerners have. Yeah, but the Irish were ultimately successful. I’m thinking more of situations that actually parallel the US Civil War: one side tries to secede, or seize power, or whatever, fails, and then spends the next hundred and fifty years quietly muttering about the rightness of their cause. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/57 "2012-08-04T16:50:58Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Well. Pearl Harbor - won the war, but lost that battle. I can’t really see the attack on Pearl Harbor as even a battle. In a battle, you’re usually prepared for something, aren’t you? (I’m ignoring evidence that the U.S. may have suckered the Japanese into that attack). ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/58 "2012-08-04T16:53:49Z")
Although it is illegal to display in Vietnam, the South Vietnamese flag is commonly raised by many Vietnamese emigrants living abroad. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/59 "2012-08-04T17:00:15Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Yeah, you really don’t know much about the events of and leading upto Oct 1973 do you? Or various war aims? Maybe he doesn’t, but I do. And he’s essentially right. The 1973 war has a limited defeat for the Egyptians, and a resounding defeat for the Syrians. Furthermore, it was completely unnecessary - if Sadat had offered peace in return for the Sinai in 1972, he probably would have gotten everything he wanted. Of course, you can always define victory downward and claim that by showing the Israelis that they weren’t invincible, the Arabs essentially defeated them. But frankly, that’s insulting to everyone involved (which, incidentally, included my country, not yours. I’m kind of tired of you trying to sell yourself as some sort expert on the Middle East, when you’re not even from here). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318/60 "2012-08-04T18:00:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Maybe he doesn’t, but I do. And he’s essentially right. The 1973 war has a limited defeat for the Egyptians, and a resounding defeat for the Syrians. Furthermore, it was completely unnecessary - if Sadat had offered peace in return for the Sinai in 1972, he probably would have gotten everything he wanted. > > Of course, you can always define victory downward and claim that by showing the Israelis that they weren’t invincible, the Arabs essentially defeated them. But frankly, that’s insulting to everyone involved (which, incidentally, included my country, not yours. I’m kind of tired of you trying to sell yourself as some sort expert on the Middle East, when you’re not even from here). You must have a really low bar for what constitutes an “expert” if you think that anything I have written over last four years can be construed as “selling” myself as an expert. And BTW my point was directed at his claim that “Egypt invaded Israel”. Can you tell me what is wrong with that statement in the context of the 1973 War? Specifically the Sinai front? As it is, you of all people should be aware that misreading presumed Egyptian war aims was one of the reasons that Israel was caught by surprise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-other-countries-where-the-losing-side-in-a-war-is-still-celebrated/630318.md?page=4)