A Second Hiroshima

It happened 80 years ago this week on August 6, 1945. The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The devastation was unlike anything the world had ever seen. Three days later, a second bomb annihilated the city of Nagasaki. Soon after World War II came to a close.

These cities in Japan were reduced to ashes in seconds. But eventually they were rebuilt. Today they are as modernized as other cities. The people recovered.

About 20 years after these bombs incinerated their targets, a different kind of bomb leveled the United States. It was like a nuclear weapon in a moral sense, and unlike the cities of Japan, the moral landscape of America has never recovered from the impact of that explosion.

The rebellion of the 1960s devastated our culture. Moral values that held communities together had been weakening, but everything fell apart when the first generation of Baby Boomers reached adulthood and threw a temper tantrum. In 1962 prayer was removed from many public schools. In 1963 the Supreme Court declared Bible reading in schools unconstitutional. The cover of TIME magazine read “Is God Dead?” Movies began to have profanity and nudity. Young people rebelled against their parents and against authority in general. Miniskirts exploded on the scene. Young people turned to sex and drugs. And in the midst of this chaos, streets were filled with riots and protests while our young men were away fighting a war in a strange land called Vietnam.

But while much of America never recovered and in fact grew worse, it is encouraging that some protected themselves in the fallout shelter of faith. It is especially encouraging to see young Christian families today whose values align with pre-1960s standards. Hope is not lost.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

Kerry

West End church of Christ • August 10, 2025