![]() As the Cold War intensified in the late 1940s, some of those who had greeted the bomb with horror now came to accept it as a necessary deterrent against godless communism and the perceived threat of totalitarian aggression. This ambivalence shaped the early Christian response to the nuclear age. The horrors of world war and totalitarianism seemed to confirm the brutish character of realpolitik – although these realities also intensified the urgency of seeking peace and international cooperation, especially in an era of weapons of ultimate destruction. Mainstream Christians embraced a mission of bringing justice and reconciliation to a broken world, often influenced or tempered by Niebuhrian realism. The pacifism of early Christians had given way to just war doctrine, but peace principles were kept alive over the centuries by the historic pacifist churches – Mennonites, Brethren, and Friends – and gained new life in the late nineteenth century with the rise of social gospel Christianity and Catholic social teaching. In condemning a weapon of mass annihilation, church leaders were reflecting the irenic principles in Christ’s commandment to love all, including enemies. In developing and using the bomb, the commission said, “We have sinned grievously against the laws of God.” Signers of the commission report included Reinhold Niebuhr, John C. Calhoun urged the United States to renounce the further production of nuclear weapons and place atomic energy under strict international control. On August 20, dozens of Protestant leaders issued a statement declaring their “unmitigated condemnation.”2 In March 1946 a Federal Council of Churches commission headed by YDS theologian Robert L. Religious leaders were horrified by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos scientists and a savant of Eastern religion, reflected on passages from the Bhagavad-Gita, the sacred Hindu epic:Īs the sinister mushroom cloud rose in the distance, Oppenheimer was reminded of another line from the Gita: “I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds.” As Alex said in an email to me, it's more complicated than that.General Thomas Farrell, deputy director of the Manhattan Project, described the “strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces heretofore reserved to the Almighty.”1 J. It's a mistake, I think, to focus on six people as if they represent everyone who was exposed to bomb radiation. If any of you reading think we've messed up, and someone we call dead is alive or alive is dead, please write me immediately. Luttrell in the DVA database, US Army CPL, born 1924, died 1987 (age 63). Don Lutrel - I think this is a misspelling of "Luttrell." There is a Donald D.Norman Bodinger - unclear (not listed in the database), he may still be alive? Hughes II (born 1919, same as the above) - died in 1990 (age 71) John Hughes - very common name, but I'm guessing he is Maj. He told me "Military folks who have died can be found in the Department of Veteran's Affairs Gravesite Locator - and since we think all the video guys were Army and all World War II veterans, we might find some matches. I turned to my sleuth friend, science historian Alex Wellerstein (now at the American Institute of Physics) for help here. It's hard to know if a match in names is a real match and I didn't want to make an awkward mistake. "No doubt it was related to the testing." Yoshitake's nephew also wrote in and didn't mention his uncle's passing, so I'm guessing that he's now 84 years old and still with us.Īs for the others, that's trickier. ![]() "Quite a few have died from cancer," he told reporter Bill Broad. In 2010, he was interviewed in the New York Times and talked about his fellow cameramen who took pictures of atomic bombs. Googling through the list, we quickly discovered (as did many of you) that George Yoshitake, the cameraman, was alive, at least as of two years ago.
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