Nagasaki

Urikami Cathedral, Nagasaki

Found in a house near Sanno Shrine.

At 11.02 a.m. on August 9, 1945, three days after Hiroshima, the sky above Nagasaki was filled by a white flash, and all the clocks stopped.

A B29 bomber released a plutonium-armed atomic bomb dubbed Fat Man on the city of Nagasaki, using the Urakami Catholic Cathedral for ground zero.

The ferocious heat and blast indiscriminately slaughtered its inhabitants. 50000 died.


"Men and women of the world, never again plan war! ... From this atomic waste the people of Nagasaki confront the world and cry out: No more war! Let us follow the commandment of love and work together. ...

"The people of Nagasaki prostrate themselves before God and pray: Grant that Nagasaki may be the last atomic wilderness in the history of the world."

- Dr. Takashi Magai, Mystic of Nagasaki

Among the survivors was Takashi Nagai, a pioneer in radiology research and a convert to the Catholic Faith. Living in the rubble of the ruined city and suffering from leukemia caused by over-exposure to radiation, Nagai lived out the remainder of his remarkable life by bringing physical and spiritual healing to his war-weary people.  A Song for Nagasaki