Welcome to the Council of Trend Podcast, a production of Catholic Answers.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Council of Trend Podcast.

I'm your host, Catholic Answers Apologist Trent Horn, and it's been nearly 80 years since

the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan during the end of World War II.

Those would be the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In today's episode, I want to talk about whether this action was moral or whether it was

gravely immoral, and that's still controversial among many Catholics.

Before I do that, I hope you liked this video, subscribe to our channel, and support us

at trendhornpodcast.com.

No jokes about that, because today's topic is pretty grim, so let's put out some facts

about the bombings, and then I'll give a moral analysis.

On August 6th and 9th, 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the cities

of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.

The bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians.

It's the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15th, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki.

This reenactment from the BBC does a good job of dramatizing the bombing itself and showing

how the bomb exploded in the air over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cause maximum

damage.

About half of the victims were killed during the first day of the bombing and the rest died

of burns, infections, and radiation poisoning over the next few months.

Here's how one survivor of the bombing describes the aftermath.

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