By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
This August marks the 80th anniversary of the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War. As Americans, we can be rightly proud of our successful defense against the grave threats to humanity presented by the Axis powers. We do well to remember the bravery and sacrifices of all those soldiers and civilians who fought for a cause that was certainly just. So many died. The survivors went on to become that “greatest generation” that faced down the threat of communism in the Cold War while building a nation of unprecedented prosperity.
However, this month also marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States was the first and hopefully the last nation to use nuclear weapons in war. That we did so is still, after all these years, a reason for much soul searching. While our cause was just, and perhaps these bombings brought the war to a quicker conclusion, the indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on these two cities violated basic moral norms: namely, good ends do not justify evil means.
As Vatican II taught, “Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation” (Gaudium et Spes 60). The Japanese bombing of Chinese cities in the 1930s, the German terror attacks on London and Coventry, as well as the Allies’ firebombings of Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo, like the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, did not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Taken together, they all were products of a “total war mentality” and represented an abandonment of our Christian tradition, which insists that a just war must be limited in both its ends and its means. That our adversaries did not abide by these same principles did not free us from the responsibility to do so ourselves.
Today, some 30-plus years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the threat of global nuclear annihilation, which defined the postwar era has not disappeared. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, as well as Iran’s nuclear ambitions, remind us that we still live in a dangerous world. Israel is engaged in a war with unconventional foes that certainly have a “total war mentality”, which recognizes no moral restraints. The possible use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorist groups or rogue regimes like North Korea still understandably preoccupies us.
As we respond to the threats of the present, we must remember the lessons of the past and refuse to succumb to a “total war mentality.” We do have a right to defend ourselves against terrorism and unjust aggression. But it is a right that, as always, must be exercised with respect for moral and legal limits in the choice of ends and means.
Eighty years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we can recognize how the growth of technologies of violence does little for the security of nations and peoples. As Pope Leo XIV said on August 6th, “Despite the passing of the years, those tragic events constitute a universal warning against the devastation caused by wars and, in particular, by nuclear weapons… I hope that in the contemporary world, marked by strong tensions and bloody conflicts, the illusory security based on the threat of mutual destruction may give way to the tools of justice, to the practice of dialogue, and to trust in fraternity.”
Eighty years ago this month, World War II ended. The free world celebrated V-J Day exhausted yet hopeful that a new peace could be forged. Today, we must recover that hope; and dare to pray for Peace on Earth.
Pope St. John Paul II, only weeks after that fateful September 11 of 2001, exhorted us:
To pray for peace is to open the human heart to the inroads of God's power to renew all things. With the life-giving force of his grace, God can create openings for peace where only obstacles and closures are apparent; he can strengthen and enlarge the solidarity of the human family in spite of our endless history of division and conflict. To pray for peace is to pray for justice, for the right ordering of relations within and among nations and peoples. It is to pray for freedom, especially for the religious freedom that is a basic human and civil right of every individual. To pray for peace is to seek God's forgiveness and to implore the courage to forgive those who have trespassed against us.
