Nagasaki, Japan

Nagasaki--the only stop we will have in Japan.  And it will be a short day as the ship is in port only from 10 am to 6 pm.  Not knowing how long it may take for the ship to be cleared so we can exit and then allowing time to go through immigration, we decided that Nagasaki would be a good DIY port and we would see as much as we could on our own without a tour guide.

As the ship neared Nagasaki, we saw that we would be sailing under a bridge.

And we like bridges; so we were out on our balcony snapping photos.

After exiting the ship and going through immigration, we found the Visitor Center at the port and purchased all-day tram passes for 500 yen each...or about $5.  Then it was off to find the tram stop that would take us to our destination.

When we think of Nagasaki, we remember that this was the city where the second atomic bomb was dropped in World War II.  Our goal today is to pay our respects at the Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum.

Established in 1955, the Peace Park is located at the center of the bomb blast.  There are many memorials from different countries spread all over the park.  Here are just a few of them....

The highlight was seeing the park's Peace Statue.

A plaque by the Peace Statue is titled Words from the Sculptor and reads:

After experiencing that nightmarish war,

that blood-curdling carnage,

that unendurable horror,

Who could walk away without praying for peace?

This statue was created as a signpost in the struggle for global harmony.

Standing 10 meters tall,

it conveys the profundity of knowledge and

the beauty of health and virility.

The right hand points to the atomic bomb,

the left hand points to peace,

and the face prays deeply for the victims of war.

Transcending the barriers of race

and evoking the qualities of Buddha and Go,

it is a symbol of the greatest determination

ever known in the history of Nagasaki

and the highest hope of all mankind.

--Seibo Kitamura

At the statue with our neighbor, Bob

We then walked over to the nearby hypocenter, where there is an monolith and plaque that gives the account and statistics of the damage caused that day.

At 11:02 am on August 9, 1945 the atomic bomb exploded 500 meters above this spot.  The black stone monolith marks the hypocenter.

The fierce blast wind, heat rays reaching several thousand degrees and deadly radiation generated by the explosion crushed, burned, and killed everything in sight and reduced this entire area to a barren field of rubble.

The plague tells about the Urakami Cathedral, remnants of a concrete wall still stand.  Urakami Cathedral was the grandest church in east Asia at the time.  This wall was actually moved to this location from its nearby original site where the new cathedral now stands.

There is also a heart-breaking statue of a woman holding a dead child with the incription of the date and exact time of dropping the bomb.

About one-third of Nagasaki City was destroyed and 150,000 people killed or injured and it was said at the time that this area would be devoid of vegetation for 75 years.  Now, the hypocenter remains as an international peace park and a symbol of the aspiration for world harmony.

Map of the blast damage radius

We then walked over to the Atomic Bomb Museum, which is a remembrance to the bombing.  The museum was excellent and presented the history and facts of the bomb damages without getting into the reasons behind the US dropping the bomb.  

At the museum we were shown items that were directly damaged, like steel girders, melted coins, bottles,etc.

 The bomb missed the city's business district but instead hit a largely residential area.

The big yellow model of the atomic bomb, called the Fat Man, that was dropped over the city is among the great displays.

There is a clock that stopped at the exact time of the dropping of the bomb.

There are some writings by prominent figures such as Dwight Eisenhower and Albert Einstein expressing their opposition to the use of the A-bomb, and a world map showing the stockpile of nuclear weapons by various countries.

We knew this was going to be a very emotional day.  The push of this museum is to remind people of the devastation so as to make sure that this never happens again.

Leaving the museum, we wandered around the area and saw (behind glass) the actual ground level at the time of the bombing.  It was hard to see with the reflection of the glass.  

The plaque next to it reads:

"The ground in the hypocenter area was strewn with huge amounts of debris from destroyed buildings, scorched earth, melted glass and other materials.  The original ground level is preserved and displayed here as important evidence of the atomic bomb disaster."

Photo of hypocenter day after the bombing

Time was now getting away from us and we failed on a search of nearby restaurants to find a place that served noodles!  Our neighbor Bob visited Japan regularly for business years ago and wanted to have some genuine Japanese noodles again.

So instead, we made our way back to the ship on the tram.

With little time left for further exploring, and our energy spent, we boarded the ship.   This was hardly even a taste of Japan...and I still have some Japanese yen currency left.  Guess we will just have to put Japan on our list of countries to revisit.

To continue reading, scroll up towards the top of this page and click in the right-hand column the entry entitled:  Busan, South Korea.