IRD Just War and Global Statecraft Scholar Marc LiVecche spoke on November 1, 2024 at IRD’s annual Christianity and National Security Conference in Washington, D.C. How do we love our neighbors in conflict situations where two or more moral duties conflict? Video of LiVecche’s presentation is below from the Providence YouTube channel.
LiVecche (PhD, University of Chicago) is the McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence. He is also a non-resident research fellow at the U.S. Naval War College, in the College of Leadership and Ethics. His first book, The Good Kill: Just War & Moral Injury, was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. Another project, Responsibility and Restraint: James Turner Johnson and the Just War Tradition, co-edited with Eric Patterson, was published by Stone Tower Press in the fall of 2020. Currently, he is finalizing Moral Horror: A Just War Defense of Hiroshima.
Comment by Thomas More on December 23, 2024 at 2:16 pm
Its impossible to justify Hiroshima. Thats machiavellism, not Christianity. Eisenhower opposed the bombings. Japan would have surrendered anyway, since USSR had just joined the war.
Comment by Thomas More on December 23, 2024 at 2:17 pm
Its impossible to justify Hiroshima. Thats Machiavellianism, not Christianity. Eisenhower opposed the bombings. Anyway, Japan would have surrendered, since USSR had just joined the war.
Comment by David on December 23, 2024 at 6:09 pm
I watch NKH, the Japanese equivalent of the BBC, in English on a regular basis. If one watched that station alone, one would get the impression that WWII consisted of the internment of Japanese in the US and the atomic bombs. Nothing about Japan’s actions in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia is mentioned. The civilian death toll in these is thought to be many times higher than that of the atomic bombs. Every year, new names of “victims of the atomic bomb” are added to a memorial book. Some of these are over age 100.
Both Germany and Japan were developing atomic bombs as evidenced by Japan’s purchase of uranium and captured documents. Fortunately, the US got it first. There is no reason to think Japan was about to surrender. This was contrary to its culture. The US experience in Okinawa showed that even civilians would fight on or commit mass suicide. The atomic bombs likely saved many Japanese lives.
Comment by George on December 26, 2024 at 8:32 am
Justifying Hiroshima? Good luck. Just like justifying the Bataan death march.
And the horrible way the Chinese people were murdered. The beheading of allied soldiers just for fun. Yeah, if you’re looking for justification, you don’t need to look far.
It ended the war. As for president Eisenhower, he was a politician during and after the war. The bleeding hearts will always point their finger and cast blame. Jesus said that wars and rumors of wars will be with us. Such is the plight of our nature. Don’t look for justification. My generation was sent to Vietnam. Justification? So I argue with myself just as we argue with one another.