The Christians who Bombed the Christians of Nagasaki

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/09/atomic-bombings-at-80-the-very-un-christian-nagasaki-bomb/

Growing up I always heard apologias for the use of atomic weapons but few discussed specifically what happened on August 9, 1945 and the place of Nagasaki within the framework of Japanese culture.

One need not embrace all Kohls suggests in terms of 'Christian Nations' or 'Christian Culture' to nevertheless be appalled at what the US did on that day - as well as three days earlier. There are the issues and morality of atomic weapons in general but with Nagasaki there is the additional consideration of the fact that it was the centre of Christianity in Japan - and the fact that the plane crews professed to be (in some capacity) Christians. Further, there is the problem (as reported) that Christian clergy were on hand to bless their deeds - deeds that qualify as atrocity but worse, were a case of Christians setting aside the ethics of the Kingdom and putting allegiance first and foremost to a nation of the world - an allegiance and distorted loyalty that led them to be willing to kill fellow believers. And these clerics had the same twisted allegiance - which in reality must be labelled for what it is, idolatry.

Kohls is right in evoking the history of Japan's rejection and persecution of Christianity and the long road in establishing a place of tolerance like Nagasaki. This was all destroyed in August, 1945.

The delay in Japan's capitulation was tied directly to US insistence of 'unconditional surrender' - a demand which would subjugate the emperor and indeed the entire nation and its future to US leaders.

Americans have also forgotten the Soviet invasion of Japan's continental territory on 8 August 1945, which also put Tokyo in an impossible situation. But they had little time to consider or maneuver, for the second bomb was dropped just three days after Hiroshima.

The fact that some cities were deliberately set aside and preserved from the horrors of the fire-bombing (for new weapons experimentation) solidifies the arguments that Truman's decision to use the bomb was a strategic demonstration far more than a battlefield tactic. It was directed not only at Japan which was already defeated, but Moscow, for by the summer of 1945 the alliance was already beginning to break - even if the Cold War couldn't be said to have 'officially' commenced until a few years later. One can only respond with cynicism to the arguments that the bombs ultimately saved lives. The US knew what it was doing would generate outrage and as such they worked very hard to hide the results - and succeeded in doing so until a year later in 1946.

Nagasaki became the hub of Christianity in Japan - which only became legal in the wake of American threats in the 1850's. The American Navy arrived to force Japan to open up to trade but with this came international pressure to leave the persecuted Christian population alone. America partnered with Japan during these decades but later the US would switch gears and move away from Tokyo - threatening retaliation for the expansionism it once encouraged. By the 1920's it seemed clear enough the nations would eventually clash.

The final paragraph is perhaps the poignant and condemning of not just the people involved in the proliferation of nuclear weapons but the mindset of those who created the conditions for it:

The early church leaders, who knew the teachings and actions of Jesus best, rejected the nationalist, racist and militarist agendas of the national security agencies of the day. They also repudiated the pre-Christian eye-for-an-eye retaliation doctrines that have, over the past 1,700 years, regained dominance and led Christians to willingly kill both Christians and non-Christians in the name of Christ.

The politicians certainly are to blame and yet how would this history have all unfolded had Church leaders been more faithful to New Testament teaching? If these nations were truly shaped by Christianity (which is a dubious claim at best) then it follows that the masses of Christians would have resisted any state that pursued such militarist policies, let alone the atrocities committed by all sides during the world wars. Christians would have refused to take up arms and wear the emblems of the state. And Church leaders instead of blessing US troops would have denounced the war from pulpits all across the land, and called those in uniform to repentance. They would inevitably lose their tax exemptions and some would face charges of treason. But that's not what happened.

And if we're speaking of Ethnic Christian communities being devastated by American war strategies - it should be noted US policy has all but wiped out another group, the Assyrians of Iraq. They still exist but have largely abandoned their homeland in Northern Iraq, where they have lived as a people for three-thousand years - becoming Christians during Late Antiquity. No one can come up with exact numbers but something like 2/3 of the population have left since Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the internal violence and civil wars that it spawned - resulting in the terrible episode of the ISIS Caliphate.

US Evangelicals who are wont to place great stock in ethnic Christians communities rarely reflect on these questions and how their allegiance and support of the American war machine has led to the deaths of untold Christians around the world.