A Catholic Priest defends the Atomic Bombs over Japan

Last updated on: August 7, 2013 at 9:09 pm by Dave Griffey

A Catholic Priest defends the Atomic Bombs over Japan 2013-08-07T21:09:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

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Interesting. From Catholics on the blogsophere to liberal academics and pundits to other countries who love to use the bombs as shields covering their closet skeletons, there always seemed agreement that the decision to drop the bombs was evil in every way. Truman, mass murderer along the lines of Hitler and Bin Laden, did it for a variety of reasons, from just liking to butcher squint eyed Japs, to conspiring to nuke Catholics. Clearly Japan only wanted to give peace a chance, and even the Russians were hip to getting involved.

I realize that, from a Consequentialist perspective, the decision to drop the bombs just can’t be excused. Consequentialism being, in short, you can’t do an evil thing even if good comes of it. You know, you can’t torture heretics because it might be bad, but at least you’ll save their soul. You can’t bomb cities for whatever reason. You can’t lie to save a million babies. That sort of thing.

That’s Catholic teaching at this point, c. 2013. And it’s pretty clear. But even taking that stance – that from a Christian perspective the decision to drop nuclear weapons on vast populations is wrong – there is more to it than Harry Truman needing a cigarette because of the thrill he got from nuking babies. It’s worth noting that no official Church condemnation goes so far, and even allows for the fact that one – like Truman – would certainly be looked at in the total context of what he did and why he did it.

Still, it’s good to hear differing views, and at least realize that there might have been different reasons than just the typical racist imperialist American (but I repeat myself) yen to nuke babies in their sleep. I don’t make light of the event, and I see it as a horrible thing in the midst of a a greater horror. I also notice that it was after the smoke cleared that the clear and obvious teaching that the decision was wrong was published. Things to think about. Anyway, here’s the video. Watch and learn. FWIW, while still believing from a Catholic view the decision was wrong, I’m always leery of basing my condemnation on accusations against ulterior motives, like Truman really doing this to intimidate Russia vs. the more surface reasons he gives that are mentioned in the video:

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