Port 13 Nagasaki, Japan
Aisatsu! Greetings! We’re back in Japan for a few days!
On 31 March, 2024, we glide into Nagasaki harbor. The clouds are low and fully obscuring the sky.
Closer to port these five figures appear on our starboard side!
Soon we’re at our dock. There is an interesting building with a large orange ball, but even more interesting is the submarine that is docked nearby!
We are cleared to go ashore! Welcome to Nagasaki!
Today we have a tour to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park, and to a Dutch trading post called Dejima.
The area is lovely, with majestic trees and cherry trees lining the walks and river! The cherry blossoms are trying their best to pop out for us!
We arrive at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum – today promises to be as sobering as Hiroshima was two days ago.
The Museum starts us down a ramp that begins with near-current year, and slowly goes backward in time as we spiral down to the bottom. It is difficult to see in this picture, but there is a chain of paper cranes that starts on the second level.
This is the start of a chain of 1,000 paper cranes made from a single 150m-long sheet of paper! It extends all the way down the ramp to the bottom, 1945!
Similar to Hiroshima, the first thing we see is a clock that was damaged and stopped at the moment of the atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki – 9 August, 1945, 11:02 AM.
There is a digital display that shows the terrain topography. Nagasaki sits in the valley of a mountain range. This served to contain and amplify the explosive force.
Photos of the “Fat Man” atomic bomb and the B-29 plane, “Bockscar”, that delivered the bomb.
A life-size model of the Fat Man bomb is on display – it has the yellow paint and black sealant that one report stated was applied before the bomb was loaded into Bockscar.
This photo of the Sanno Shinto Shrine gate shows half of the gate was destroyed, and beyond the gate this city was laid to waste.
A fascinating part of the museum display is this huge wall depicting the mushroom cloud and describing the various types of radiation that result from the explosion and subsequent reactions!
This painting shows the cremation of Kanematsu Matsuo and his wife Masa who ran a pottery shop about 100 m from the blast center. The painting is accompanied by their atomic bomb death certificates. A haiku poet, Atsuyuki Matsuo, wrote a haiku relating to a similar situation:
After losing everything
I stand holding
Four atomic bomb death certificates
I struggle with how to share the next several photos with you. These are memories of the events and people. I will include them and let you read them if you can and want.
This one speaks of a prisoner-of-war camp that the US knew was located in Nagasaki, but put Nagasaki on the target list anyway.
A model of the Hiroshima’s Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall is located here! It shows the two cities are linked by the same tragedy.
Leaving the Atomic Bomb Museum, we are back in the fresh air approaching the Hypocenter Park. The cherry blossoms are lovely and help dispel the funk of the museum’s information.
But the funk returns when viewing this sculpture of the anguish of the women and children in the bomb shelter.
Next to that sculpture is the plaque, but it is very difficult to read, I want to share it, so I’ll retype it:
The women at home prayed for victory as their men departed for the battlefields. But the blood of countless peoples was shed on the vast continents and the far away islands.
Finally, in 1945, as the war escalated, it brought the tragedies of the Okinawa islands, followed by the inhuman atomic bomb attacks over Hiroshima on the 6th and over Nagasaki on the 9th of August.
Ah! On that unforgettable day, in an instantaneous blast of indescribable heat, the bodies of tens of thousands of men and women, mothers and children were hideously torn and burnt to death.
After more than forty years, the agony continues ever yet! Danger signs of a second nuclear war permeate our very existence. The earth stands at the brink of total oblivion.
We must not allow any more war! Nor the use of atomic weapons! Let us guard our green earth and preserve all life of every kind.
We erect this relief, still hearing the bursting cries on that day of each of those women long silenced in death. Bringing together all the turmoil from the depths of their tortured hearts and minds, we pledge ourselves never to repeat that disaster.
August 1, 1987
This is the Mother and Child Statue of Peace. The mother’s dress is covered with roses. The child appears to be dead. The time on the pedestal is the atomic bomb detonation time.
Sadoko Sasaki is also remembered here for her brave fight, goal of creating one thousand cranes, and dying ten years after the Hiroshima atomic bomb at the young age of twelve. Her 1,000 cranes project is carried on by school children every year!
We cross the river into Hypocenter Park. The riverwalk below is lovely!
Hypocenter Park has a monument at the center where the Fat Man atomic bomb exploded 500 m in the air.
To the side of the Hypocenter Monument, a segment of the Urakami Cathedral, all that remained of the main entrance, has been relocated for posterity.
Because of bombing attacks by the Americans, the Japanese were encouraged to create bomb shelters. The hard, rocky soil of the area was suitable as it would not easily collapse and did not require supports. There are 193 air raid shelters in Nagasaki, dug into the mountainside by individuals and community associations at the request of the Japanese government.
The morning of the atomic bomb attack an aircraft approached that triggered the air raid warning. People flocked to their bomb shelters. After a short wait with no attack the all-clear was given. People emerged from the shelters. Then the atomic bomb exploded! Most of the people were in the open.
We move to the Nagasaki Peace Park. The walk up among the flowers is lovely!
Sixteen countries donated statues to place in the Peace Park. This is the donation from the United States, created in and donated by the people of St Paul, Minnesota. St Paul and Nagasaki share a relationship as sister cities! The statue represents the seven continents and their interdependency for global peace and solidarity.
One of two bells from Urakami Cathedral was found and rung on Christmas day in 1945 to give people hope. This is a bell from Urakami Cathedral.
The Peace Statue is dedicated as an appeal for lasting world peace and a prayer that such an event never happens again. The right hand is raised toward the atomic bomb blast as a warning for the threat of nuclear weapons. The face is in quiet repose, praying for the souls lost. The outstretched left hand symbolizes tranquility and world peace. The right leg is folded in the position of quiet meditation, and the left leg is poised for action to assist humanity.
We leave the Nagasaki Peace Park and head for our second destination, the Dejima town museum.
We cross a bridge to reach this island village.
People in period costume are here. This is a gate guard.
This town was the location of major trade between the Dutch and Japanese. We see representative architectures from both the Dutch (on the left) and Japanese (on the right).
Dejima was the heart of sugar import coming to Japan! Sugar in, rice and silks out.
This painting depicts the scales being used to weigh the imports and exports to make sure people were being paid fairly. You see Japanese officials sitting on a bench overseeing the operations.
Here is a replica of one of the scales used. The commodity was placed on one side, and measured weights on the other until the balance beam is horizontal. The Japanese in this part of Japan developed a strong taste for sweets, more so than any other part of Japan!
This beautiful plate is embedded in the walkway!
At the end of town is a full model of the town! There is even a small platform to allow photographers get this picture from above the model! The town is small, holding space for warehouses and the people needed to run the trading businesses. We are told the Dutch and Japanese workers could live here as long as they had no children!
After the tour, Noriko, our tour guide offers to help us find a shop that sells “fancy yarn”! We end up at this little shop near Noriko’s home. This man is 93 years old! We don’t know his name but simply call him ojii-san (grandpa, or old man). Noriko stay to help translate for us. His shop is crowded with a lot of clothing and cloth, but little yarn. We don’t buy anything, but Joy asks for his picture, and he lights up! He gives Joy the roll of yarn that you see between his feet. Then he starts speaking with us in English! He is charming!
We didn’t even think to ask what memory he has of the bombing and where he was then. I bet he has a fascinating story!
From ojii-san’s shop we learn to ride the city’s tram system to get back to the ship! “Take the green line!” Very easy!
Back on the ship we are soon leaving the port.
Sayonara, Nagasaki! This has been another heart-wrenching day, but our visit with Noriko and ojii-san helped lift our spirits! We are blessed to be able to visit these locations!
Next stop – Fukuoka, Japan!
