Nagasaki

Nagasaki (長崎市, Nagasaki-shi^?) is a Japanese city, capital of Nagasaki Prefecture, located on the southwestern coast of the island of Kyūshū. It had an estimated population, as of September 2021, of 401,515. Its name means "long cape". During World War II, the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made this the second and, to date, the last city where a nuclear attack was carried out in a war.

History

Image of a Portuguese carriage in Nagasaki. Japanese Biombo of the CenturyXVII.

It was founded in 1571 by Portuguese navigators. Originally it was a port town of little importance until the arrival of Portuguese explorers.

The small port town quickly became a diverse port city through which many products imported from Portugal (such as tobacco, bread, tempura, sponge cake, and new styles of clothing) entered. Many of these products were assimilated into Japanese popular culture. The Portuguese also brought with them many products of Chinese origin.

Competing with the Portuguese, the Dutch slipped into Japan quietly by this time, despite the shogunate's official decision to end all foreign influence in the country for good. During the Shimabara rebellion (end of 1637-beginning of 1638) by firing on the Christians the Dutch demonstrated that their interest was exclusively commercial and in favor of the shōgun. For this reason, in 1641 Dejima, an artificial island in the Bay of Nagasaki, was granted to them as a base of operations. From this date until 1855 Japan's contact with the outside world was limited exclusively to Nagasaki.

In 1720 the ban on Dutch books was lifted, thus creating a large wave of internal migration to Nagasaki of scholars of European arts and sciences.

After American Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan in 1853, the shōgun decided to open the country's doors again. Nagasaki became a free port in 1859 and modernization began in 1868. With the Meiji Restoration, Nagasaki quickly converted to assume some economic dominance. Its main industry was shipbuilding.

Catholic Stronghold of Japan

San Francisco Javier travel map in the middle of the centuryXVI.

Mid-century 16th century, when a Portuguese ship accidentally ran aground on the Tanegashima in 1543. Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Javier arrived in another part of the territory in 1549, converting several daimyō (feudal lords).

The 26 martyrs of Japan executed by crucifixion on February 5, 1597 in Nagasaki.

In 1587 the prosperity of Nagasaki was threatened when Hideyoshi Toyotomi rose to power. Concerned about the great Christian influence in southern Japan, he ordered the expulsion of all missionaries. The Jesuits had already acquired partial administrative control over Nagasaki, and the city then returned to the control of the Shōgun. Both Japanese and foreign Christians were persecuted and Hideyoshi crucified twenty-six Christians in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597 to prevent any attempt to usurp power from him, including Saint Paul Miki (see the article The 26 Martyrs of Japan). The Portuguese merchants, however, were not disturbed, and so the city continued its development. When shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power some twenty years later, conditions did not improve much. Christianity was completely banned in 1614 and all missionaries were deported, as well as those Japanese who did not renounce Christianity. This was followed by a brutal campaign of persecution, resulting in thousands of deaths or torture in Nagasaki and other parts of Japan. At first the Christians put up resistance, leading to the formation of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637, where more than 40,000 Christians led by Amakusa Shirō took over the Hara castle. The shōgun sent 120,000 soldiers to crush the rebellion, thus ending the brief "Christian century" in Japan. The few Christians to survive ended their days in hiding and persecuted. On the Shimabara Peninsula, most of the villages suffered from a lack of population due to the rebellion. In order to maintain the planting of rice and other crops, immigrants from other areas of Japan were brought to repopulate the area. Buddhism was strongly promoted in the region. Some customs that were introduced to the peninsula remain to this day.

Kakure Kirishitan (隠れキリシタン, Kakure Kirishitan^? Japanese for "hidden Christian") is a term referring to a Japanese member of the Catholic Church who passed into the underground after the Shimabara Rebellion in the 1630s.

Januarius Kyunosuke Hayasaka, bishop of Nagasaki, in 1927 was the first Japanese bishop.

This "Church of the Catacombs" he worshiped in secret rooms and in her homes. Over time the figures of the saints and the Virgin Mary were transformed into figurines resembling the traditional statues of Buddha and bodhisattvas. The prayers were adapted into Buddhist-like chants, keeping many untranslated words from Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese. The Bible was traditionally passed around, as the printed versions were confiscated by the authorities. Due to the expulsion of the priests, the leadership of the Christians remained in the hands of laymen who baptized the new Christians.

The Virgin Mary was known as nandogami or the mother in the cupboard since the image was placed in the cupboards of the home.

On May 22, 1876, the Archdiocese of Nagasaki was founded as the vicariate apostolic of southern Japan and was segregated from the vicariate apostolic of Japan.

In 1889 full religious freedom was proclaimed in Japan and on June 15, 1891 the diocese of Nagasaki was canonically established, which in 1927 welcomed Monsignor Januarius Kyunosuke Hayasaka as pastor, who is the first Japanese bishop and is consecrated personally by Pope Pius IX. During his stay in Japan, Maximilian Kolve had the support of Bishop Hayasaka, who appointed him professor at the Nagasaki seminary.

In 1910 there were almost 50,000 Christians in the great province of Nagasaki, a bishop, 26 clerics, 67 churches, a seminary with 31 seminarians, six schools, three hospitals and a multitude of other care centers (leper colonies, boarding schools for young ladies, nursing homes...).

And by 1929, of the 94,096 Japanese Catholics, some 63,698 were from Nagasaki.

Second atomic target

Nube in the form of fungus caused by the explosion of the atomic bomb over the city of Nagasaki.

On August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb was dropped on it. The American bomber "Bockscar" He had orders to attack shipyards, but he found the Mitsubishi arms factory, on which he dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb, the second detonated on Japan and more powerful than the Hiroshima one. (see Hiroshima for an account of the first explosion).

Initially the target was Niigata, but it was raining; it was changed to Kokura, but there was thick fog and it could not be located, and with lack of fuel and with the mission in jeopardy, Charles Sweeney finally settled on Nagasaki, the last alternate target. The Great Artist, acting as weather plane, reported a visible break in the clouds, while the Bockscar only had fuel for a single pass. Upon arrival, the plane encountered a closed cloud ceiling, before which it had to decide whether to drop it or return. Finally, the radar bombardment was decided.

Effects of bombardment

Nagasaki, before and after the atomic bomb.

Although the bomb missed by a considerable distance, it obliterated almost half the city, falling on the side of the Urakami Valley, where Nagasaki was located. 35,000 of its 240,000 inhabitants died instantly, followed by an equivalent death from disease and injury. The dead include 6,200 of the 7,500 Japanese workers at the Mitsubishi munitions plant, another 24,000 (including 2,000 Koreans) who worked in war plants in the city, as well as 150 Japanese soldiers.

Nagasaki atomic victim.

The terrain where the city is located is very mountainous, which limited the effects of the shock waves from the initial explosion. Still, the destruction, chaos, and horror were similar to Hiroshima. The bomb exploded 500 meters from the original Urakami Cathedral, destroying it and killing those inside, so fourteen years later, in 1959, it was rebuilt. Such was the stupefaction of the military headquarters and the degree of impact of both civilians and soldiers, that Nagasaki was not inspected until after a week, when the city was already a silent charnel house. Those who managed to survive beyond the radius of action of the bomb had to attend to the waves of wounded, mostly serious.

In this area, the steel structures of the concrete buildings caught fire. Trees were uprooted and burned by the heat. Some people had burns all over their bodies, others lost their sight, but what caused an impact were the progressive deformations that affected the population, since these did not manifest immediately, but weeks, months, and even years after the detonation.

Consequences

Japan surrendered six days after this destruction.

Night view of the city in the centuryXXI

After the war, the city was rebuilt, although extensively modified. New temples and churches were built. Some of the rubble was left intact in memory and new buildings were built for the same purpose, such as the atomic bomb museum. Nagasaki is today a port city with a rich shipping industry.

Geography

Nagasaki lies partly on the Nishisonogi Peninsula (西彼杵半島) and borders the cities of Isahaya and Saikai and the Nishisonogi district.

Climate

The city has a humid subtropical climate.

Average Nagasaki climate parameters (1981 - 2010)
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	21.3	22.6	24.4	29.0	34.6	36.4	37.0	36.6	36.1	33.7	27.4	23.8	37.0
Average temperature (°C)	8.0	9.4	13.7	20.6	25.5	28.6	32.2	31.5	27.5	22.7	16.8	11.1	20.6
Temp. medium (°C)	1.5	2.7	6.4	12.1	17	21.1	24.9	24.5	20.3	15.0	8.9	3.4	13.2
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	-5.2	-4.8	-3.6	0.2	5.3	8.9	15.0	17.0	11.1	4.9	-0.2	-3.9	-5.2
Total precipitation (mm)	64.0	85.7	132.0	151.3	179.3	314.6	314.4	195.4	188.8	85.8	85.6	60.8	1857.7
Nevadas (cm)	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4
Precipitation days (≥ 0.5 mm)	11.1	9.9	12.5	10.8	10.6	13.5	11.6	9.8	9.7	6.2	9.0	10.0	124.7
Days of snowfall (≥ 1 mm)	1.2	0.9	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	2.5
Hours of sun	102.8	119.7	148.5	174.7	184.4	135.3	178.7	210.7	172.8	181.4	137.9	119.1	1866
Relative humidity (%)	66	64	66	68	72	79	80	75	73	67	67	66	70
Source No. 1: Japan Meteorological Agency
Source No. 2: Japan Meteorological Agency (records)

Twinned cities