Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse

Since 1945, official Catholic discourse around nuclear weapons has condemned their existence on the one hand and supported them as deterrents on the other. This paper argues the largely abstracted discourse on nuclear weapons within the World Church has been disrupted by voices of Urakami in Nagasak...

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Autor principal:	Gwyn McClelland
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	Catholic pope history oral history atomic weapons nuclear weapons Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/69cad26cb7704130a9d78fa47766594f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:69cad26cb7704130a9d78fa47766594f2021-11-25T18:52:48ZUrakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse10.3390/rel121109502077-1444https://doaj.org/article/69cad26cb7704130a9d78fa47766594f2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/11/950https://doaj.org/toc/2077-1444Since 1945, official Catholic discourse around nuclear weapons has condemned their existence on the one hand and supported them as deterrents on the other. This paper argues the largely abstracted discourse on nuclear weapons within the World Church has been disrupted by voices of Urakami in Nagasaki since at least 1981, as the Vatican has re-considered both memory and Catholic treatments of the bombing of this city since the end of World War II. On 9 August 1945, a plutonium A-bomb, nicknamed ‘Fat Man’, was detonated by the United States over the northern suburb of Nagasaki known as Urakami. Approximately 8500 Catholics were killed by the deployment of the bomb in this place that was once known as the Rome of the East. Many years on, two popes visited Nagasaki, the first in 1981 and the second in 2019. Throughout the period from John Paul II’s initial visit to Pope Francis’s visit in 2019, the Catholic Church’s official stance on nuclear weapons evolved significantly. Pope John Paul II’s contribution to the involvement in peace discourses of Catholics who had suffered the bombing attack in Nagasaki has been noted by scholars previously, but we should not assume influence in 1981 was unidirectional. Drawing upon interviews conducted in the Catholic community in Nagasaki between 2014 and 2019, and by reference to the two papal visits, this article re-evaluates the ongoing potentialities and concomitant weaknesses of religious discourse. Such discourses continue to exert an influence on international relations in the enduring atomic age.Gwyn McClellandMDPI AGarticleCatholicpopehistoryoral historyatomic weaponsnuclear weaponsReligions. Mythology. RationalismBL1-2790ENReligions, Vol 12, Iss 950, p 950 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Catholic pope history oral history atomic weapons nuclear weapons Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
spellingShingle	Catholic pope history oral history atomic weapons nuclear weapons Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790 Gwyn McClelland Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse
description	Since 1945, official Catholic discourse around nuclear weapons has condemned their existence on the one hand and supported them as deterrents on the other. This paper argues the largely abstracted discourse on nuclear weapons within the World Church has been disrupted by voices of Urakami in Nagasaki since at least 1981, as the Vatican has re-considered both memory and Catholic treatments of the bombing of this city since the end of World War II. On 9 August 1945, a plutonium A-bomb, nicknamed ‘Fat Man’, was detonated by the United States over the northern suburb of Nagasaki known as Urakami. Approximately 8500 Catholics were killed by the deployment of the bomb in this place that was once known as the Rome of the East. Many years on, two popes visited Nagasaki, the first in 1981 and the second in 2019. Throughout the period from John Paul II’s initial visit to Pope Francis’s visit in 2019, the Catholic Church’s official stance on nuclear weapons evolved significantly. Pope John Paul II’s contribution to the involvement in peace discourses of Catholics who had suffered the bombing attack in Nagasaki has been noted by scholars previously, but we should not assume influence in 1981 was unidirectional. Drawing upon interviews conducted in the Catholic community in Nagasaki between 2014 and 2019, and by reference to the two papal visits, this article re-evaluates the ongoing potentialities and concomitant weaknesses of religious discourse. Such discourses continue to exert an influence on international relations in the enduring atomic age.
format	article
author	Gwyn McClelland
author_facet	Gwyn McClelland
author_sort	Gwyn McClelland
title	Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse
title_short	Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse
title_full	Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse
title_fullStr	Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse
title_full_unstemmed	Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse
title_sort	urakami memory and the two popes: the disrupting of an abstracted nuclear discourse
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/69cad26cb7704130a9d78fa47766594f
work_keys_str_mv	AT gwynmcclelland urakamimemoryandthetwopopesthedisruptingofanabstractednucleardiscourse
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Urakami Memory and the Two Popes: The Disrupting of an Abstracted Nuclear Discourse

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