Episode 10: The Bombing of Nagasaki & Catholics of Urakami Bede There, Done That

Episode 10: The Bombing of Nagasaki & the Catholics of Urakami
Brief Chronology:
1549 - St. Francis Xavier arrives in Japan; Nagasaki eventually becomes heartland of Japanese Christianity
1587 - Persecution of Japanese Christians begins.
1865 - Hidden Christians reveal themselves at Nagasaki and are promptly persecuted.
1925 - Original Immaculate Conception Cathedral finished in Urakami
1930 - 1936 - St. Maximilian Kolbe in Nagasaki
1933 - Japanese takeover of Manchuria
1934 - Conversion of Takashi Nagai after living with Moriyama family, descendants of leaders of the Hidden Christians of Nagasaki
1937 - Beginning of Sino-Japanese War
1941 - Aug. 14 - St. Maximilan Kolbe dies at Auschwitz; Dec. 7 - Japanese attack on Pear Harbor leading to U.S. entry into WWII
1945



Night of March 9-10: Firebombing of Tokyo, killing approx. 80 to 100,000
May 8 - Germany surrenders
Aug. 6: First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing approx. 70,000
Aug. 9, 11:02 AM: Second atomic bomb dropped on Urakami valley area of Nagasaki, killing approx. 30,000
Aug. 15: Japan surrenders
1951 - Death of Takashi Nagai
1958 - Reconstruction of cathedral in Urakami
1981 - Pope John Paul II visits Japan


Summary:
We discussed the story of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the historic Catholic area of Urakami in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 AM. The bomb exploded extremely close to the area where the Immaculate Conception Cathedral stood, and where Catholics were gathered in preparation for the upcoming Feast of the Assumption. The cathedral was reduced to ruins which burned through the night. Catholic priests and nuns, as well as about two thirds (about 8,000) of the city's Catholics perished in the bombing, in which approximately 30,000 people total were killed instantly. Ironically, the commander and pilot of the B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb was an American Catholic, Major Charles Sweeney (then only 25 years old), who professed to never regret the bombing.


Those who survived faced many struggles - they were stigmatized as irradiated persons, called hibakusha; they faced local pressure to leave the devastated cathedral in ruins as a peace memorial; they experienced "survivor guilt"; and struggled with traumatic memories of losing family and homes.


Although the writings of Dr. Takashi Nagai explained the bombings as providential, many Catholics felt dissatisfied with his views . These different perspectives began to be shared after Pope St. John Paul II's 1981 visit to Japan, in which he spoke of the evils of atomic warfare and stated at Hiroshima, "War is the work of humanity; war is destruction of human life; war is death." (Dangerous Memory, p. 75). Survivors took this message to mean they did not need to accept uncritically Nagai's sacrificial theory of the bombing.


Among the survivors we discussed were:
• Dr. Takashi Nagai - He was a radiologist working in a hospital at the time of the bombing. He was diagnosed with leukemia shortly before the bombing due to his exposure to radiation in his work and nearly died of his injuries after rallying the survivors from the hospital to help the wounded in and around Nagasaki. He eventually returned to Urakami with his two young children to live in a hut where he wrote the first book allowed to be published providing an eyewitness account of the bombing, The Bells of Nagasaki. Nagai used proceeds from the book to plan cherry trees throughout the city. He is controversial for his theory that the bombing of Nagasaki was providential and provided an acceptable burnt offering of the good and innocent to God for the sins of mankind in waging World War II. He has been designated a "Servant of God," meaning he has an open sainthood cause.
• Brother Ozaki Tomei (Tagawa Koichi) - A Franciscan monk who was working in an underground factory at the time of the bombing. He was haunted by his turning away from helping others in the immediate aftermath of the bombing as he desperately