S£P 301946 THE CATHOLIC HOUR TOTAL WAR BY THOMAS H. MAHONY The thirteenth in a series of addresses by prominent Catholic lay- men entitled “The Road Ahead,” delivered in the Catholic Hour on September 1, 1946, by Thomas H. Mahony of Boston, Massachusetts, outstanding authority on international affairs. After the series has been concluded on the radio, it will be made available in one pamphlet. National Council of Catholic Men Washington, D. C. TOTAL WAR One of the most outstanding features of World War II was the character of totality mark- ing every phase of the war. The words “total war” came into more or less common use as a result of the gradual inclusion of almost every aspect of na- tional political, social and eco- nomic life within the war effort of the belligerent nations. Modern war is total war in three aspects— persons, places and weapons. Modern war is total in that it involves not only the armed forces of the warring nations but also those people behind the lines who are engaged directly in the manufacture of munitions and in the equipment and feed- ing of the combatant forces. These groups might possibly be said to be engaged in actively furthering the armed combat and, therefore, subject to at- tack. Total war, however, in- cludes another group which is strictly non-combatant. This group consists of the old, the sick, the unoccupied, the chil- dren and the mothers caring for them. These persons cannot properly be considered as being engaged in aiding the combatant forces and should not be the ob- ject of armed attack. But total war does not respect or protect his group. Area bombing or saturation bombing, intended to wipe out great industrial cities, kills non-combatants as well as combatants. Modern war is total in that it has substantially wiped out any distinctions between military in- stallations and fortified places upon the one hand and unforti- fied and largely residential cities upon the other. All areas within the territory of a belligerent na- tion must now be regarded as possible targets for air attack. Saturation bombing raids over cities inevitably mean the de- struction of hospitals, schools, churches, houses, and of public services such as gas, electricity, water, communication and trans- portation upon which the civilian population depends. Modern war is total in that the weapons and means of mass destruction are such that they destroy not only combatant forces and military installations but also destroy non-combatant persons and unfortified cities. The V-l buzz bomb and the V-2 rocket bomb used by Germany toward the end of the last war wreaked havoc upon English cities and their civilian popu- lations. The atomic bombs used by the United States in Japan far exceeded in destructive ca- pacity any weapons used (before them. The weapons now being designed and manufactured for a possible third world war threaten even greater destruc- tion and loss of civilian lives than the present weapons. A brief survey of the bombs used, the areas attacked and of t h e destruction wrought in World War II will be most en- lightening. “The United States Strategic Bombing Survey,” recently pub- lished, indicates that the air at- tack conducted against the enemy by the American and British air forces' involved' more than 1,- 440,000 bombing plane sorties and 2,680,000 fighter plane sor- ties. The 2,700,000 tons of bombs dropped included high explosive, fragmentation and incendiary bombs. Slightly over 50% of these bombs were dropped upon German territory. More than 25,000,000 German civilians were subjected to these bombing raids in the various areas attacked. As a result, about 305,000 of these civilians were killed, '780,- 000 were wounded, 7,500,000 were made homeless, over 18,- 000,000 were deprived of essen- tial services such as water, gas and electricity and some 3,600,- 000 dwelling units—20% of all such units in Germany—were totally destroyed or seriously damaged. The survey makes clear that area bombing raids were di- rected against. cities for the pur- pose of destroying large areas and were intended primarily to destroy morale, especially that of industrial workers in these cities. It further indicates that the most effective weapon for residential areas in large cities was the incendiary bomb. In Hamburg, which was bomb- ed for three nights in July and August, 1943, 8,600 tons of bombs were dropped. Some 60,- 000-100,000 civilians were killed and 750,000 made homeless. About 300,000 dwelling units — 33% of the total and covering 55% of the city—were destroyed or badly damaged. The fires de- veloped a heat of over 1,400 de- grees Fahrenheit and produced “fire blizzards” or winds of a 90 mile per hour speed. These fires raged for weeks without effective control. A single atomic bomb dropped from a single plane upon Hiro- shima on August 6, 1945, killed about 78,150 people, wounded 37,425 and dispossessed 176,987. It destroyed or seriously dam- aged 68,000 buildings or 80-90% of those in the city. The heat developed by the atomic bomb is said to run up to millions of de- grees Fahrenheit and the winds thereby produced to reach a speed of 1,000 miles per hour, A more powerful atomic bomb did proportionately more damage in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, considering the size of that city. The deaths due to pre-atomic bombing in Hamburg averaged from 2,000-3,000 per square mile and in Tokyo about 5,300 per square mile. Those due to atomic bombing in Hiroshima averaged about 15,000 per square mile and in Nagasaki about 20,000 per square mile. Planes are now being devel- oped to fly several thousands of miles with great bomb loads. Pilotless planes and pilotless mis- siles capable of speeds far ex- ceeding that of sound and able to transport atomic bombs suf- ficient to snuff out any pre- scribed target area without human intervention are on the way. Bomb hits may possibly be made on any square mile of the earth’s surface from any other part of the world. Total war in the future will be more devas- tating and more rapidly so than ever before. It has been said recently by one of our scientists that 500 bombs properly dropped would be sufficient to destroy the 198 cities in the United States which have populations of over 50,000. Ap- proximately 30 bombs would be sufficient to wipe out our five largest cities with a total popu- lation of about 16,000,000 people and property valued at over $28,- 000,000,000.00. It has been esti- mated that eight bombs would be enough to destroy the City of New York, the population of which is in excess of 7,500,000. Some authorities believe that other weapons and means of mass destruction will also be used if there is another inter- national war and that they threaten losses of life as great if not greater than do atomic bombs. Biological warfare is contemplated—the spreading of fatal diseases in foods and in animals and human beings, by means of mists laid by planes or bombs and by other means. An epidemic or plague started upon one side of the continent might sweep to the other side and deci- mate it. In addition to bacteri- ological warfare, the conduct of war by radio-active gasses and other substances, brought into public prominence by the Bikini tests, fatal in their effect, threatens civilian populations and residential areas as well as combatant forces and fortified areas. Modern war is, in truth, total war and must be stopped if civi- lization is to survive. Military experts and scientists in this country, for the last year have repeatedly and emphatically pro- claimed the urgent and compell- ing necessity of preventing any future international wars. These facts and figures should not give rise to any emotional shock or abject and unreasoning horror. They should, on the other hand, prompt a cold analysis of the facts, a reasoned apprecia- tion of probable alternatives and an unyielding determination to do away with war. War is, or should be, a re- lationship between nations. It is, or should be, a conflict in which the armed forces of one nation or group of nations undertake to destroy or capture the armed places and armed forces of an- other nation or group of nations. The armed violence incidental to war should not be extended to and applied against non-com- batants. The direct consequences of war, so far as possible, should not be visited on innocent men, women and children who play no active part in the war effort of a hostile nation, and never with- out sufficient and timely warn- ing. Yet this is exactly what modern and total war does. In the moral order and under moral law—which not only binds men individually, but also when gathered together in units of political society called states or nations—war does not and can- not destroy those natural and fundamental rights with which God has endowed all men. These rights have not been created or given to man by any political so- ciety or by any agreement be- tween such political societies or nations and, therefore, cannot be taken away by them. These rights derive directly from God and are inalienable. They pre- cede in time and character, and necessarily limit the organi- zation and authority of any po- litical society or government, whether of a municipal, national or world character. On several occasions Pope Pius XII has called the attention of the statesmen of the world to these principles and warned them of the disastrous consequences to follow the violation of them, but to date these warnings have gone unheeded. In 1940, upon the feast of St. Eugene, the Pope urged the warring nations to observe these principles, saying, “We beg all the opposing parties to be ever mindful of these obligations of humanity which lose none of their validity even in the pres- ence of the laws and morality of war.” In this same address he also said, “We should not re- frain from expressing our deep sorrow at seeing that in several countries the treatment of non- combatants is far from being conformed to and compatible with the requirements of hu- manity.” In his Easter message of 1941, the Pope said, “As for using still more deadly instruments of war, we beg the warring nations to abstain from them even to the end. . . .” It was after these warnings and after these pleas that Ger- many developed and used the V-l and V-2 bombs. It was after these pleas that the United States developed and used the atomic bomb. As a result of the constantly increasing destructive character of war, the world is now- eonfronted with the possi- bility if , not the probability of the. destruction , of a. great part of it and of a large proportion of its civilized population if an- other war—a total war—is to be waged. Pius XII in his Christmas message of 1941 wisely, and in a few words, sums up this ques- tion of total war and the press- ing of doing away with it. in that message he admonishes the statement of the various nations of the postwar world as follows: “Within the limits of a new order founded on moral princi- ples once the more dangerous sources of armed conflict will have been eliminated, there is no place for total warfare or for a mad rush to armaments. The calamity of a world war, with the economic and social ruin and the moral dissolution and break- down which follow in its trail, must hot be permitted to enve- lope* the human-race for the third time.*” : * - : - Will the admonition and the advice contained in these few words still go unheeded or will they be adopted in the establish- ment of a new world order and the maintenance of a permanent world peace? J?3 i