Bishop's Views On The Use Of Nuclear Weapons

The church has a strong standpoint on the use and possession of nuclear weapons. After watching the movie and reading about Bishop's belief on this topic I have taken these view points into account on the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan and the use of these weapons. Nuclear weapons are not just another class of weapons in the long history of development of weapons. Nuclear weapons are unique and their impact is primarily on women and children. These weapons have security, political and economic implications. However, the issue of nuclear weapons is a moral question. It is a question of right and wrong, good and evil, ethics. It is this ethical aspect of nuclear weapons, especially as it applies to the designing and manufacture of nuclear

According to some estimates, as many as 74,000 died. The US was justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan already killed over 2,000 people in the Pearl Harbor bombings. We had done nothing to provoke them, unless you count our cutting off trade with Japan, limiting their oil supply. That was also reasonable, as they were rapidly conquering the Indian Ocean and wanted to take the Pacific too. If America did not drop the bomb the losses of soldiers would be even at a larger number than the amount of people who died in the drop of the bomb. It has also been said to save a lot of American’s lives and soldiers. This is backed up by the quotation “Fighting would be fierce and the losses heavy”, said by Harry S. Truman in 1955. This quote can tell us that during that time he believed that if the war was still going it was likely that the upcoming invasions of Japan would cause even more severe damage and casualties of American soldiers and

The church believes that under no circumstances may nuclear weapons or other instruments of mass slaughter be used for the purpose of destroying population centers or other predominantly civilian targets. Non-nuclear attacks by another state must be resisted by other than nuclear means. One of the criteria of the just-war teaching is that there must be a reasonable hope of success in bringing about justice and peace. We must ask whether such a reasonable hope can exist once nuclear weapons have been exchanged. In the Bishop's view the first imperative is to prevent any use of nuclear weapons and hope that leaders will resist the notion that nuclear conflict can be limited, contained or won in any traditional sense. The Church believes that it is nuclear disarmament, not nuclear deterrence, that is a long term basis for