Three days after dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and the day after the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It was originally destined for Kokora, a very heavily industrialised city nearby, but when cloud obscured the city, the crew of Bockscar diverted to the secondary target, Nagasaki, and dropped Fatman over the city around morning tea time. Estimates are that 130,000 people were either killed or injured, around one third of the population.
Whether it was the second bomb or the Soviet army rampaging through Japanese held Manchuria that did it is debated, but after a lot of arguing, going against the wishes of a number of his generals, and after a failed coup d’etat, Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded radio address across the Empire on 15 August announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies. On 28 August, the occupation of Japan began. The surrender ceremony was held on 2 September, aboard the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, thereby ending the hostilities.
Today we visited the memorial sites in Nagasaki. The city is tightly surrounded by hills, so the area that was severely affected by the blast is fairly long and narrow, down their river valley. There were the usual statues and memorials, parts of buildings that had survived, photos of the city before and after, and fountains symbolising new life.
Something that I didn’t realise is that both bombs were actually detonated before they struck the ground. In Nagasaki’s case this was some 500m above the ground.
We started by visiting the obelisk denoting the ‘hyper-centre’ of the explosion (as they call it), viewing the mother and child statue, and the (relocated) pillar from the nearby catholic cathedral which was the only bit that survived the blast.
The next park along contained the Fountain of Peace, several memorials to peace donated by governments around the world, and culminated with the iconic Peace Statue, with the positions of the statue’s arms and legs all being symbolic.
Along to the National Peace Memorial Hall which contains books inscribed with the names of over 195,000 registered victims, which includes such things as subsequent leukemia victims. A very nice building with pillars of light inside, and a pond with 70,000 lights that illuminate at night to honour the killed.
We then trudged up the hill to the rebuilt Catholic Cathedral to view the remains of the belfry which toppled in the blast, and has been left as a memorial.
Jesuits brought Christianity to Japan in 1549, but it was gradually persecuted, and banned outright in 1614. Missionaries were expelled and the faithful were forced to choose between martyrdom or hiding their religion.
Between 1614 and 1873, Christianity was completely banned in Japan, and many Christians were martyred for their faith during that period. Over 3,600 villagers were banished to exile by the newly installed government, and over 650 died. The persecuted came back to their home village after the ban was lifted, and decided to construct their own church.
Construction began in 1895 and the villagers were so poor that it wasn’t completed until 1925. It was the largest Christian structure in the Asia-Pacific region for 20 years until Fatman came along.
After lunch, we visited the 26 Martyr’s Memorial, commemorating those executed on the site on February 5, 1597. The 26 people, a mixture of 20 native Japanese Christians and six foreign priests (four Spaniards, one Mexican and one Portuguese from India) had been arrested in Kyoto and Osaka on the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the national ruler, for preaching Christianity. They were imprisoned, then later marched through the snow to Nagasaki, so that their execution might serve as a deterrent to Nagasaki’s large Christian population. Hung up on 26 crosses with chains and ropes, the Christians were lanced to death in front of a large crowd on Nishizaka Hill.
I guess it’s a bit of a conundrum. One of the social attributes that Japanese pride themselves on is being considerate towards others, but it seems that this doesn’t extend, even today, to tolerance for people who aren’t Japanese, or Shinto/Buddhist.
On a lighter note, during the third week of our holiday here, we have done 132,000 steps which is about 81km, and climbed 184 sets of stairs (that’s over 500 sets of stairs since we’ve been in Japan). In total, we’ve walked further than Melbourne to Wangaratta.
Peace Statue
Bomb Hyper-centre memorial
Nagasaki Mother and Child Statue
Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall
26 Martyr’s Memorial