Reparation for the Frightful Wounds Inflicted on the Whole Human Family

[Michie]

COMMENTARY: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen spoke forthrightly about the ethical deformation that came from ignoring moral absolutes and justifying the intrinsically evil decision to use atomic weapons.


We mark this week, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, the 75th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As Americans, we look with horror and rightly condemn the evil attacks against Pearl Harbor or on 9/11, where 2,403 and 2,977 people, respectively, died.

What should our attitude be toward the dropping of the uranium gun-type bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima and the plutonium implosion “Fat Man” bomb on Nagasaki, which between them killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, the equivalent of six to 10 weeks of Sept. 11s?

In the United States, a sense of patriotism has kept many of us from confronting how World War II ended. To question the morality of the tombs dropped by the Enola Gay and Bockscar mainly on Japanese non-combatants seems to question the moral legitimacy of the Allied victory, turn the good guys into bad guys, and undermine the authentic heroism of the greatest generation.

Continued below.
Reparation for the Frightful Wounds Inflicted on the Whole Human Family

 

[chevyontheriver]

COMMENTARY: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen spoke forthrightly about the ethical deformation that came from ignoring moral absolutes and justifying the intrinsically evil decision to use atomic weapons.


We mark this week, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, the 75th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As Americans, we look with horror and rightly condemn the evil attacks against Pearl Harbor or on 9/11, where 2,403 and 2,977 people, respectively, died.

What should our attitude be toward the dropping of the uranium gun-type bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima and the plutonium implosion “Fat Man” bomb on Nagasaki, which between them killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, the equivalent of six to 10 weeks of Sept. 11s?

In the United States, a sense of patriotism has kept many of us from confronting how World War II ended. To question the morality of the tombs dropped by the Enola Gay and Bockscar mainly on Japanese non-combatants seems to question the moral legitimacy of the Allied victory, turn the good guys into bad guys, and undermine the authentic heroism of the greatest generation.

Continued below.
Reparation for the Frightful Wounds Inflicted on the Whole Human Family

Reparation, for this and for everything else, ought to be something we engage in daily. There is SO MUCH reparation needed. Every day. I have tried to engage in some sort of meager reparation on the days when my brain is focused on the Lord.