We are agreed that, whatever be one’s judgment of the war in principle, the surprise bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are morally indefensible.” Hiroshima after the bomb, with the signature of Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, which dropped the "Little Boy" weapon. A year later, in 1946, the Federal Council of Churches issued a statement declaring, “As American Christians, we are deeply penitent for the irresponsible use already made of the atomic bomb. Seventy-two years ago the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Little Boy, August 6) and Nagasaki (Fat Man, August 9), leading to the announcement of the surrender of Imperial Japan (August 15) and the cessation of hostilities between our nations (September 2) and the termination of the Second World War.Įven before the atomic weapons were employed in the theater of war some of the scientists working on the Manhattan Project that built the bombs expressed their reservations once it was evident that the Germans had not completed their own nuclear program, and especially after they witnessed the awesome destructiveness of the Trinity test in New Mexico of the first ever atomic explosion on July 16.
and our allies contemplate what to do with this potential threat to global security, on this, the 72 nd anniversary of the only time in history that nuclear weapons have been used in conflict, let us reflect on the morality of that terrible week. As this specter looms on our immediate horizon and the U.S. Although he didn’t mention nuclear weapons, everyone knows that the regime has been ramping up its nuclear capability for years, testing bombs underground and firing missiles eastward toward Japan and, ultimately, America. sanctions leveled against the already economically beleaguered country amounting to a billion dollars in lost export revenue. with a “thousand-fold” retaliation for the U.N. This week the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un rattled his saber again, threatening the U.S.