Students and professors packed the Kroc Institute’s Hesburgh auditorium to witness a panel discussion on President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. David Solomon, Michael Baxter, and Rev. Bill Miscamble, CSC, focused on Fr. Miscamble’s recently published book, “The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan.” Daniel Philpott, Notre Dame political science professor, moderated the panel of these three friends and colleagues.
In his opening remarks, Fr. Miscamble confirmed his deep concern for morality. “I’m not some mad bomber priest,” he quipped.
Fr. Miscamble elaborated on the arguments made in his recent book. The Notre Dame history professor asked the audience to put themselves in Truman’s shoes by replacing the confines of the Hesburgh auditorium with the fog of war in 1945. He stressed that Truman was an “American president trying to win a war.”
Fr. Miscamble delineated the opportunity costs of a different decision. Dropping the bombs “replaced imminent invasion, blockade, and bombing,” he stated. “400,000 innocent lives died in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria…250,000 Asians and Westerners would have died under Japanese occupation.” He emphasized the radical militarization of Japan and the determination of its military leaders to continue fighting even after the second bomb was dropped.
Solomon, professor of philosophy and director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, disagreed strongly with Fr. Miscamble, and with Truman’s decision to drop the two atomic bombs.
Solomon’s argument centered on the destruction of innocent life wrought by the atomic bombs. Solomon listed self-defense, combat, and capital punishment as potentially justifiable situations for taking life, but stated that it “is always wrong to kill the innocent.” Solomon argued that threat of the Japanese did not warrant the dropping of the atomic bombs and equated dropping the bombs with the deliberate intention to kill.
While acknowledging the historical context, Solomon condemned Fr. Miscamble’s defense of Truman’s decision as utilitarian.
Baxter, a former professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and a visiting fellow at DePaul University, also contested Fr. Miscamble’s arguments and Truman’s ultimate decision.
In addition to his general agreement with Solomon’s arguments, Baxter argued that it is dangerous to view the “fog of war” as immune from philosophy. Personally influenced heavily by the Catholic Worker movement, he also discussed the undue influence of twentieth century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism.
Invoking J.R.R. Tolkien’s popular fantasy novel THE Lord of the Rings, Baxter compared the atomic bombs to the novel’s ring of power, warning the audience against the dangers of political power.
In response to his critics, Fr. Miscamble accepted the importance of Christian realism as he described the implications of World War II as a “great moral struggle.” His analysis focused on Truman’s decision as the “least abhorrent option” available to the president.
Scott Englert is a junior political science and economics major. He is also particularly interested the new constitutional studies minor. Please feel free to contact him at senglert@nd.edu.
