Hiroshima and Nagasaki

At the close of World War II, the United States conducted atomic bombings against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The events served as tests for nuclear technological experimentation and military action to end combat in the Pacific Rim. The sheer magnitude of these attacks has not only given rise to global and international peace movements but also acted as a symbol for religious movements geared toward pacifism and the safeguarding of life in general. In particular, the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International has made antinuclear proliferation a central feature of its religious objectives. Indeed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki elicited a variety of critical responses from religious leaders abroad, including the theologian and member of the Federal Council of Churches Reinhold Niebuhr, ...