The Plagues of Nuclear Weapons, COVID-19, and Racism: Reflection and Action

I write on the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb by the United States on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. More than 100,000 people, mostly civilians, died that day and nearly 100,000 more died three days later when the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the city of Nagasaki.

I grew up in an era when the belief was widely held that the use of those bombs was necessary to end World War II. My late father-in-law was on a troop ship heading for an invasion of Japan at the time and he always and firmly believed the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved his life. From his vantage point as a foot soldier, that was how it looked. 

However, even at that moment, there were dissenting views. The predecessor body of the National Council of Churches was known as the Federal Council of Churches (FCC). Three days after the attack on Hiroshima—on the day of the bombing of Nagasaki--the general secretary of the FCC, Samuel McCrea Cavert, sent a telegram to President Harry Truman. It read:

Many Christians deeply disturbed over the use of atomic bombs against Japanese cities because of their necessarily indiscriminate destructive efforts and because their use sets extremely dangerous precedent for future of mankind. Bishop Oxnam, president of the Council, and John Foster Dulles, chairman of its Commission on a Just and Durable Peace, are preparing statement for probably release tomorrow urging that atomic bombs be regarded as trust for humanity and that Japanese nation be given genuine opportunity and time to verify facts about new bomb and to accept surrender terms. Respectfully urge that ample opportunity be given Japan to reconsider ultimatum before any further devastation by atomic bomb is visited upon her people.

President Truman did not take kindly to this criticism and responded on August 11 with this telegram:

I appreciated very much your telegram of August ninth. Nobody is more disturbed over the use of atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war. The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.

I submit the entire struggle against war and racism is encapsulated in this exchange. War is based on the myth of redemptive violence. President Trump sums it up this way:

One of the things you should do in terms of success: if somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ‘em back five times harder than they ever thought possible. You’ve got to get even. Get even. And the reason, the reason you do, is so important….The reason you do, you have to do it, because if they do that to you, you have to leave a telltale sign that they just can’t take advantage of you.

This is a race to death, a race to the bottom, a spiral of violence without end.

The use of the atomic bomb was easily accepted by many because it was used against non-white people. Similarly, slavery, lynchings, segregation, racism, and police violence and murders are viewed as justified by too many white people as a means to enforce dominance and control.

May we use the 75th anniversary of atomic attack on Hiroshima to re-commit ourselves to ridding the world of nuclear weapons and of war and of racism. We must do this not only because it is consistent with the teaching of Jesus but because it is essential to our very survival.