THE NEW REALISM 
New York, N. Y. 

TO the Editors: There are certain corrections that I would like to make to Mrs. Halsey's letter (September 7) which criticized President Hutchins's address, "The New Realism." 

(1) Our young men and women did not risk their lives for peace and justice if they were members of the US armed forces. We worked, goldbricked, ate, drank and on occasions fought to defeat the Germans, Italians and Japs, the French and the rest of the flunkies who opposed us, and to come home to our families and malted milks and good liquor. It was only the good mothers, or some of them, who swallowed OWI propaganda about how we were fighting for God, the Atlantic Charter and a brave new world, including bread and vanilla sodas for the Chinese coolies and the Arabs. 

(2) We have permitted the Germans to be enslaved. Ask the many thousands of Germans who were transported into Russia, with little or no protest by the US or British governments. At least no serious objections. 

(3) We are permitting the wholesale and immoral compulsory emigration of Germans from the Balkans and East Prussia, thereby condoning a practice initiated by Hitler. 

(4) We are guilty of indicting the German nation because the people weren't all heroes and, martyrs. It isn't enough that millions of Germans were tortured and killed in Hitler's concentration camps. I wonder how many of us who were members of the armed forces would have remained true to our Christian and democratic principles if we had lived under the Gestapo and SS. —Joseph Calderon

"ADVENTURES IN GRACE" 
Bethany, Pa. 

TO the Editors: Francis Downing's review of Mme. Maritain's book, "Adventures in Grace," makes me think of the parable of the prodigal son. We can well imagine that the prodigal son raved about everything in his father's house. And the stay-at-home son must have found it "painfully embarrassing." The prodigal must have—to use Mr. Downing's expression—"prized passionately a thing" the stay-at-home "took for granted." But that's where, I think, the stay-at-home errs. To take it for granted. As if—to use a slang expression—the thrill is gone. It did not have to go! It has been my privilege to meet many born Catholics for whom it never has gone. Which of course implies that it was there once, that they did not go through life as blind as—bats. And as I am sure it is not the case either with Mr. Downing, we may come nearer the truth, Mr. Downing's truth, when we read "I am pained in this reading because a thing I so dumbly love is exposed, is explained, is made articulate. There is an intimacy, a reverence, a silence, a reticence about religion as there is about love." Hum! It all depends on people. Thousands of men in Anglo-Saxon countries are, when it comes to love, so chuck full of "reverence, silence and reticence" that you just wish they would not so "dumbly love" but be a little "articulate," so the woman would not have the dreary feeling of being taken for granted. Surely no one can wish for a transposition into religion of such a detestable attitude. Of course Mr. Downing will— protest that he means he would not tell all about his love to others. But I don't think Mme. Maritain does either! She would not. It is truly incommunicable. What she gives us is the overflow of her immense joy. In that we certainly can share though it may express itself in a way unfamiliar to us. 

And now about the "converts." What is that undercurrent of slight envy and distrust mixed together? For centuries the Church built herself on "converts," and thank God, she still does. The Church has not become an institution in which membership is hereditary. The Church is not a club, a political party. Of course, some are the "workers of the eleventh hour ... and the workers of the first hour. . . ." Well. Leave it to the "converts" themselves. They know, like Saint Paul, that they are the least of them all.—Claire Huchet Bishop

BILBO ADMIRER 
Chicago, Ills. 

TO the Editors: You are indeed correct when you say that Senator Bilbo "is dealing publicly with matters of intense national interest." Truly is it not a historic tragedy for many people who have struggled to raise large families to be forced out of their own property after incoming Negro families have depreciated its value overnight? Actually, have you ever rode through the Black Belt of a large northern city to see mulatto children look down scornfully upon the pure-blooded Negroes? Truly, there are about 120,000,000 white citizens of America who will not have black blood running in the veins of their grandchildren. Aside from the above complaints, we wish the Negroes God's greatest blessings.—Mary Frances Campana

P.S. I hope in justice that this note will appear in COMMONWEAL. 

We suggest Miss Camping read Father Dunne's article elsewhere in this issue.—THE EDITORS.

ATOMIC BOMB 
Princeton, N. J. 

TO the Editors: Recent editorial comments on the atomic bomb emphasize the importance of organizing, planning and directing research after the manner of industrial laboratories, in contrast to the activity of "prima donna" scientists who work alone. They have not brought out the fact that the atomic bomb is a by-product of nuclear physics and wave mechanics. To assess the importance of individual research in this connection it would be necessary to review the lives of Einstein, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi and others and ask how much of their power and knowledge was derived from study in solitude and relatively unorganized laboratories. 

While the Victorian physicists were working on the conventionally planned problems of their day in the best organized laboratories of their time, younger men with less backing were working alone on the mysteries of the new physics. Their problems were not "stated" nor could they be "solved by team work." Planning is futile before the problem is known. Someone had to see his way clear to a new order. Many theories had to be conceived and rejected. Out of this confusion, and through the curiosity and desire for understanding inherent in men's minds, there arose in some unknown way the first meaningful questions. 

Insufficient distinction is made between the origin and the development of ideas, between the difficulties which arise from the limitations of men's minds, and the matter and energy at their disposal. As a scientist, I am unimpressed by the mere magnitude of the bomb project, shocked and saddened 'by the bomb's use, and more than ever aware of the humane and peaceful uses to which the two billion dollars could have been directed. The new bomb can be justified, if at all, only by the necessity of survival. 

In the eyes of a Hypatia, Saint Thomas, Leonardo or Newton, science was a revelation of the beauty and order of nature and of its counterpart in men's minds. To serve science was to add to the dignity of man. Small things might have great beauty and possess unmeasurable value. Even clarity of thought has value. Our worship of size has gone too far when it embraces magnitude of destruction. 

The Reverend Harold E. Nicely in his reply (New York Times) of August 23, 1945, to the "unmitigated condemnation" of the use of the atomic bomb against Japan, asks "What was the alternative?" 

There were several alternatives. With nearly unchallenged control of the air, a fleet of bombers with selected area bombing could do far more military damage than one atomic bomb, unless one regards random bombing of civilians as proper military damage. The atomic bomber is compelled to fly high and use a parachute bomb to save itself, and thereby disregards all pretence of the bomb control which our moral standards (variable, it is true, but this principle of restraint itself has value, unless we are to revert to anarchy) Have previously held to be necessary. 

We could have demonstrated the power of the atomic bomb on purely military objectivees such as Wake Island, or military reservations in Japan. 

Until all alternatives were tried, it was not wise to compromise the conscience of the American people by this act. The use of the atomic bomb saved the face of the Japanese and will give them an unjustified sense of moral victory. A real victory for us including an untarnished moral victory would have cost less in the long run and been worth more not only to us but to the world.—Martson Morse

I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK 
Hillcrest, Calif. 

TO the Editors: Ina Sugihara's declaration (July 20) that she does not care to come back to California provoked me to answer her objections. The news developments of the past fortnight delayed this intention, but I think they have crystalized the issue. Peace now has a chance to 'be realized, but this will not occur in a vacuum. It surely is not the absence of active warfare. It cannot be expected to flourish 'by turning one's back upon unpleasant experiences and memories. 

California is regarded by many who have been anticipating the days after the war as a crucial area, the mainstreet frontage in this era now beginning. It would seem that the Nisei would want to be on this exciting scene and participate in shaping the fabric of civilization. It is discouraging to see the Nisei express a vehement preference to stay away, especially when they are of Miss Sugihara's ability. 

For this is not to advocate that all Nisei return. Of course the present dispersal out of the ghettoes of the west coast to all parts of the nation is one of the benefits from the ordeal of evacuation—if these ghettoes are not to be multiplied in the Denvers and Chicagos and Bostons. 

It must be admitted that the majority of the "returnees" are those who lack the resourcefulness to face new conditions. Some are returning for this reason from the East, but 'by far the most are expected to come from the relocation camps which the War Relocation Authority has firmly avowed its policy to evacuate by year's end. Here remains about half of those who were originally evacuated. They are largely the very old and the very young who could not go out to dare a new start. They have been having that chance, who recite "the heathen Chinee" and of living in a normal American community. Three and a half years of this isolation has affected the children. Can such people be expected to be readily absorbed into the existing American stream? 

No, not readily, though children are adaptable and it can be done—in time. There are barriers, however: those Who make it their business to keep these people from having that chance, who recite "the heathen Chinee" and "a Jap's a Jap." They instigated the ouster under the cloak of military necessity. The die-hards of this group have been sniping and organizing to block the constitutional right of Americans to live in America. 

That these hostile groups have been waging a losing campaign is in large part due to the friends of the American way who have organized for vigorous action. The removal of a hundred thousand neighbors into "protective custody" without trial pricked the conscience of those who believed in democracy. They saw even as a Supreme Court Justice that this act had gone to the very brink of democratic tenets. 

The swift expansion of Western economy with mammoth war-born industries brought a population influx that packed even the normally phenomenal growth of west coast cities. These newcomers included Negroes, Mexicans, and others from every part of the Union. Regional prejudices were brought and new frictions were created as they were crowded into inadequate housing. 

While the boom lasted the fists could be expected to be too preoccupied with raking in the war bonanza to take time out for scrapping with one another. However, such early incidents as the zoot-suit brawl were enough to alert the thinking minority to prepare ahead. 

How well their work has been done to anticipate the day of reckoning now seems at hand. The groundwork has 'been carried on without the klieg lights that one associates with California technique. Civic Councils of Unity have been organized to coordinate the efforts of various organizations. This ground swell has reached into politics and there have been several significant changes since the Nisei were expelled. Such men as Leland M. Ford, who led the political agitation for the evacuation, and John Costello, who subsequently persisted in misrepresenting them with sub-Dies Committee "investigations," have been retired from Congress. In this year's election in the West's largest city the runner-up candidate for mayor bluntly took issue with restrictive covenants. 

Last fall in a suburban town a couple of its vocal men began spewing vitriolic attacks in the local press and service organizations against the Japanese in America. A real cross-section of the townsfolk rose in spontaneous defense of their absent neighbors, declaring their faith and friendship for them.

 When the first Nisei re-enrolled in a California college, opposition died a-smouldering despite powerful support from the press in the face of a vigorously alert local organization and the sweeping friendliness of the student body backed by a fair Board. 

Today in California is a far stride from that at the end of 1941. Caucasians are working with Negroes and Mexicans, Catholics with Jews and Protestants, cooperating in the conviction that if world peace is to be attained, understanding must begin at home. Much work yet remains to be done, but these Californians are of a mind to keep their shoulders set and do it. They would like to have the Nisei join them. —Sam Hohri