The United States’ involvement in World War II decreased enrollment at Candler, and focused the school's training of remaining students for military chaplaincy, a vocation that half of the graduating class of 1943 pursued. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a 1940 graduate of Candler, was serving a Methodist church in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb is dropped. Tanimoto later devoted his life to helping the survivors and speaking out for nuclear disarmament.