On August 9th, 1945, an atomic bomb detonated 500 meters above Matsuyama in Nagasaki City at 11:02am. The area within a 2.5 kilometer radius of the hypocenter was utterly devastated, and the rest of the city was left in ruins. After the bombing, which destroyed all plant life around the hypocenter, people said that no plants would grow there for the next 75 years. However, one month after the atomic bombing, about 30 kinds of plants started to grow again. Today, there are about 500 cherry blossom trees in the Hypocenter Park, as well as flowers and lush greenery that can be seen throughout the year. It truly captures the power of revival.
 

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Nobel Peace Prize for 2024
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known 
as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.
 

On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m. - three days after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima - the second atomic bomb was dropped over the Urakami district of Nagasaki. This bomb killed or injured 150,000 people.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum covers the history of this event in the accessible form of a story. It begins with the disastrous scene of the attack and includes the events leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb, the reconstruction of Nagasaki up to the present day, the history of nuclear weapons development, and the hope for a peaceful world free of nuclear weapons.

Comparing the scenes of Nagasaki immediately after the bombing with the appearance of the city today, one cannot help but be impressed by the remarkable spirit of survival and the immutable strength of the people of Nagasaki.
 

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Nobel Peace Prize for 2024
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known 
as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

 

The Sanno Shrine, situated 900 m from the center of the blast, was instantly obliterated by the explosion and the 4000°C heat wave vaporized nearby trees. The only thing that remained is the torii arch standing on a single pillar, reminding us of the tragedy that took place.

Rising 333 meters above sea level in the center of Nagasaki, Mount Inasa Park in the Inasa mountain range is a natural park beloved by the residents of the city. It is renowned for its displays of azaleas in the spring. The summit features a glass-enclosed circular domed lookout from which one can enjoy a 360-degree view of the spectacular scenery. On clear days, one can even see Mt. Unzen, the Amakusa area, and the Goto chain of islands. The summit can be reached by a ropeway operating from Fuchi Shrine (in Fuchimachi). The picturesque scenery and natural beauty of Nagasaki's mountains and coastline are all here to enjoy - including the tour boats entering the Port of Nagasaki, the historical settlements of foreign residents, and the rows of buildings in each district. 

Hashima Island, also known by its nickname “Gunkanjima” (Battleship Island) due to its unique silhouette, is a small island that flourished as a coal mining community from 1890 to 1974. It reached its peak population of 5,267 people in 1959, making it the world’s highest population density ever recorded in history. However, in 1974, the island became completely deserted after the coalmine was closed.

In 2015, Hashima Island was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed as a component of “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding, and Coal Mining Industries.” In addition, it received worldwide attention as it was the model for the “Dead City” in the James Bond movie “Skyfall” (2013), and the model used for the live action movie of "Attack on Titan" (2015).

Today, cruising tours and landing tours to Hashima Island are offered by several tour operators in Nagasaki City, but reservation in advance is required.

The Shinchi area was originally land reclaimed for warehouses used by Chinese boats. Today it is one of Japan’s top three Chinatowns, featuring a total of 250m crisscrossing roads filled with Chinese restaurants, shops and large red Chinese gates.

Hashima (also known as Gunkanjima) was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015 as a part of the components of “Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining”.

Here at the Gunkanjima Digital Museum, not only can you learn about the history of Gunkanjima in its prime days, there are also many fun and interactive activities available. For example, you can explore Gunkanjima in its current state via VR lenses (this includes the restricted area that no one can access in person) and many other activities using the leading-edge digital technology. In addition, 5-sides 3D theater video experience will open on March, 2024!

Oura Cathedral is one of the components that demonstrates what triggered the end of Hidden Christians’ hiding. Hidden Christians met the missionaries for the first time in two centuries (the ‘Discovery of Hidden Christians’). Hidden Christian leaders throughout the Nagasaki region visited the cathedral, and such contact with the missionaries brought about the transition and subsequent end of Hidden Christians’ hiding. In the transitional phase, Hidden Christian communities split into three groups: those who rejoined the Catholic Church, those who decided to continue their unique way of practising the faith that they had developed during the ban on Christianity, and those who converted to Buddhism or Shinto.
Oura Cathedral is located on a hill facing the Port of Nagasaki in the south of the Nagasaki region. Its precincts contain the parish house, the church building that was initially built for the foreigners within the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement, a seminary and a catechist school (both of which were established for missionary work after the lifting of the ban on Christianity).

Oura Cathedral stands within the former Foreign Settlement established in Oura after Japan opened its ports to overseas trade. In 1862, Father Furet of the Paris Foreign Missions Society selected the location to construct the church for use as the base of the Society’s mission in Nagasaki.

Within the precincts of the cathedral, a parish house was built first in 1863, then the church building itself was built in 1864. It had a Gothic-style exterior with three belfries. The floor plan had three naves, and its façade had a building plaque just like Buddhist temples, reading ‘Tenshudo’ (literally meaning ‘church’). It was dedicated to the 26 Catholics who were martyred in Nagasaki in the 16th century and canonised in 1862. The building faces in the direction of Nishizaka, their martyrdom site.

In 1865, soon after the dedication ceremony, a dozen Hidden Christians from Urakami Village in Nagasaki visited the church, and one of them approached Father Petitjean saying ‘We are of one heart with you’, and revealed their secret faith. News of this dramatic event, which came to be called the ‘Discovery of Hidden Christians’, immediately reached the Hidden Christian communities in the Nagasaki region, encouraging their leaders to visit the missionaries at the church as well.

Such contact with the missionaries brought about a transitional phase of the Hidden Christian communities and prompted various reactions among them. Those who decided to receive guidance from the missionaries revealed their faith in public, although the ban on Christianity was still in effect. As a result, the Tokugawa Shogunate arrested the Hidden Christians in Urakami in 1867, and the Meiji Government which continued the Shogunate’s policy of banning Christianity exiled more than 3,000 of them to twenty domains throughout Japan and tortured them in order to make them recant their faith. This incident is called ‘Urakami Yonban Kuzure’. On the Goto Islands, those Hidden Christians who revealed their faith in public were captured (Goto Kuzure), and on Hisaka Island, as many as 200 Hidden Christians were thrown in a jail cell roughly 19.8 square meters in area, killing many of them (the Royanosako Martyrdom). The missionaries of Oura Cathedral addressed the consulates of Western countries represented in Japan to help stop these persecutions. The Meiji Government lifted the ban in 1873 in response to increasing criticism from western countries, eventually putting an end to the suppression of Christianity in Japan.

Following the lifting of the ban, the Hidden Christian communities split into three groups: those who decided to receive guidance from the missionaries and join the Catholic Church as their ancestors did in the 16th century, those who decided to continue their unique way of practising the faith that they had developed for two and a half centuries, and those who converted to Buddhism or Shinto.

The missionaries of the church gave full catechistical instruction to the former Hidden Christians, placing great importance on the catechism and specific terms in Portuguese and Latin that had been introduced by the Catholic mission in the 16th century and that the religious communities of Hidden Christians had, hitherto, transmitted from generation to generation by themselves. The missionaries made coloured engravings and other materials for the mission as well. At the same time, they also reintegrated the distinctive ways of the Hidden Christians into the more conventional rituals and customs of Catholicism.

The church building underwent extension work to deal with an increasing number of Catholics attending church services after the lifting of the ban, and in 1879 the scale and the appearance of the building took on the form that is seen today. Within its precincts, the Latin Seminary and the Catechist School were established for the purpose of training Japanese clergy. The Latin Seminary was constructed in 1875, and the Japanese graduates were sent to the remaining Hidden Christian communities following the first graduation ceremony in 1879. The Catechist School was established around 1883 in order to train catechists to give catechistical instruction in the remaining Hidden Christian villages, in place of missionaries, so that it was easier to visit these villages scattered throughout such a large area. Many Japanese catechists graduated from the school, and until 1892 were sent to the Nagasaki region to carry out their missionary work. The Latin Seminary and the Catechist School provided the driving forces encouraging Hidden Christians to rejoin the Catholic Church during this transitional phase.



La « Cathédrale d'Oura » est une composante du patrimoine qui témoigne de la cause de la fin de la « clandestinité » des chrétiens. Les chrétiens clandestins ont rencontré à la Cathédrale d'Oura les missionnaires venus au Japon après son « ouverture ». Il s'agissait de la première « Découverte des chrétiens cachés » depuis deux siècles. Le contact ultérieur entre les missionnaires de la Cathédrale d'Oura et les leaders des villages de chrétiens clandestins de différentes régions a marqué un tournant pour ces derniers, dont certains retournèrent ensuite au catholicisme, d'autres continuèrent à pratiquer leur foi depuis la période de persécution, et d'autres encore se convertirent au shintoïsme ou au bouddhisme, ce qui marqua enfin la fin de leur « clandestinité ».

Glover Garden is situated on the southern slope of a mountain, ensuring that the garden's flowers can be enjoyed in full bloom throughout the year. This excellent vantage point offers a superb and extensive view of Nagasaki Harbor. The gardens feature the former Glover Residence, which, in addition to the gardens, was donated to the city of Nagasaki in 1957 by the Nagasaki Shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and opened to the public. Eventually, six other Western-style residences from the Meiji era that had been built throughout the city were dismantled, moved, reconstructed and restored as important national cultural properties on this site of former foreign settlements. They joined the former Glover Residence, the former Ringer Residence, and the former Alt Residence on the site. All these buildings now form Glover Garden.

Inside the gardens, one can tour the Thomas B. Glover Residence, Japan's oldest wooden Western-style residence. Through his trading businesses, Glover contributed much to Japan's modernization. The gardens, in addition to revealing the living circumstances of Nagasaki's foreign residents during what is known as "the period of foreign settlement," also display an abundance of fascinating natural beauty. Now all can view the same scenery, and relax in the same gentle breezes, enjoyed by these renowned historical personages.