When the atom bomb “Fat Boy” devastated Nagasaki 65 years ago today, one of the buildings reduced to rubble was the city’s Urakami Cathedral — then among the largest churches in Asia.
The blinding nuclear flash that claimed more than 70,000 lives in the city also, in an instant, blew out the stained glass windows of the church, toppled its walls, burnt its altar and melted its iron bell.
However, in what local Christian followers have likened to a miracle, the head of a wooden Virgin Mary statue survived amid the collapsed columns and scorched debris of the Romanesque church flattened on Aug. 9, 1945.
The appearance of the war-ravaged religious icon is haunting. The Madonna’s eyes have become scorched, black hollows, the right cheek is charred, and a crack runs like a streaking tear down her face.
“When I first saw [the damaged statue], I thought the Virgin Mary was crying,” said Shigemi Fukahori, a 79-year-old parishioner at the church who remembers the statue before the explosion that destroyed the cathedral that is called St Mary’s in English.
“I thought it’s as if the Virgin Mary is telling us about the misery of war by sacrificing herself,” Fukahori said, quietly gazing at the statue. “This is a significant symbol of peace, which should be preserved forever.”
The remains of the statue of the Virgin Mary have found a new home inside a rebuilt church, also called St Mary’s, built on the same site, only 500m from the bomb’s ground zero.
However, the powerful relic has also traveled widely as a symbol of peace — most recently to New York for a UN nuclear disarmament conference in May, when it was also taken to a mass at the city’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who saw the statue in the US city, visited Nagasaki to be reunited with it on Thursday before attending a peace memorial ceremony in Hiroshima.
On their way to New York, the Nagasaki religious leaders carried the statue to the Vatican, where it was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI, and to a ceremony in Guernica, Spain, to mourn the victims of Nazi air attacks during the Spanish Civil War.
“We traveled overseas with the statue, with the idea that we would like to ask the Virgin Mary to act for peace,” Joseph Mitsuaki Takami, the archbishop of Nagasaki, said in an interview. “There are many ways to make such an appeal — through pictures, film or narratives about the horror — but the atomic-bombed Mary appears to have a different power to tell us about it.”
Nagasaki, a southwestern port city, was Japan’s sole gateway to the outside world during much of the Edo era (1603 to 1868) when the country retreated into self-imposed isolation.
The Edo era’s Tokugawa Shogunate imposed anti-Christian edicts in the early 17th century, oppressing Christians and banishing European priests.
Some believers were martyred and others secretly maintained their creed as “hidden Christians” for more than 200 years until Japan reopened under the Meiji era that began in the late 19th century.
Some 8,500 local Christians were killed in the Nagasaki bombing.
Brother Thomas Ozaki Tagawa, speaking for other local Christians, said many were puzzled by why the US attacked Nagasaki, Japan’s largest Christian community.
While many of the survivors try to see the tragedy as a tribulation handed to them by God, their agonies are still rooted deeply in their minds.
“I was too sad to cry because it was simply too merciless,” said Fukahori, who survived inside a Nagasaki factory when the mushroom cloud rose.
“Many survivors are still suffering the after-effects of the radiation,” Fukahori said. “All I can do is to pray for them. I hope Nagasaki will be the last place ever to fall victim to an atomic bomb.”
Many Americans believe the bombs were necessary to bring a quick end to the war and avoid a bloody land invasion, but the archbishop disagrees.
“Japan killed millions in Asia, but that doesn’t mean dropping atomic bombs is justified,” he said. “Possessing nuclear weapons in itself is a sin.”
Mayor Tomihisa Taue said: “People simply need to use the power of their imagination and consider how it would be if this happened to their family or friends. You can easily imagine that when you visit Nagasaki or Hiroshima.”
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source