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“God and the Atom”: British Churchmen and the Challenge of Nuclear Power 1945–1950

1997; Appalachian State University; Volume: 29; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/4051671

2326-1242

Kirk Willis,

American Environmental and Regional History

The nuclear age opened in prayer: Almighty Father, who wilt hear the prayers of them who love Thee, we pray Thee to be with those who brave the heights of Thy heavens and who carry the battle to our enemies. Guard and protect them, we pray Thee, as they fly their appointed rounds. May they, as well as we, know Thy strength and power, and armed with Thy might may they bring this war to a rapid end. We pray Thee that the end of war may come soon, and that once more we may know peace on earth. May the men who fly this night be kept safe in Thy care, and may they be returned safely to us. We shall go forward trusting in Thee, knowing we are in Thy care now and forever. Amen. Thus did United States Army Chaplain William B. Downey bless the anxious crew of the Enola Gay in the quiet, early hours of 6 August 1945. After the aircraft's successful mission and return to the tiny island of Tinian, both President Harry Truman and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill ended their official announcements of the “mastery” of nuclear power and the destruction of Hiroshima with their own benedictions. To Truman, preoccupied with the imminent close of the war, the chief blessings to be offered were strategic: “We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.” For Churchill, now uncomprehendingly in political opposition, the appropriate prayers were far more ambiguous: This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from men, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe they may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.