Wilson Miscamble Interview
Marc LiVecche
39.52
23 July 2020
8 January 2026
Next month is the 75th anniversary of the US atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In recognition of the event, Mark Tooley speaks with Marc LiVecche and Wilson Miscamble about the use of nuclear weapons on Japan in World War II. Father Wilson Miscamble of Notre Dame University is author of The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan. Marc LiVecche, a just war expert, is completing his own book on the ethics of the atomic blasts.
Both Miscamble and LiVecche defy current fashion in both Catholicism and Protestantism by defending the atomic blasts as horribly tragic but moral necessities given the alternatives. Critics decry their arguments as “consequentialist,” to which they respond.
Next week LiVecche will debate this topic with a Catholic ethicist who critiques the atomic strikes, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, we hope you’ll be edified by this ecumenical conversation about tragedy and morality in history with important implications for today.
Transcript available at: https://providencemag.com/video/christian-conversation-on-hiroshima-nagasaki-anniversary/