The empty bell tower of Nagasaki’s cathedral has finally got a replacement bell for the one that was destroyed 80 years ago by the atomic blast that levelled most of the city at the end of World War II.
It follows an international effort to fund the construction and installation of the bell at Urakami Cathedral, with $125,000 raised in just over a year from more than 600 individual donors, reports the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the two Japanese cities that were largely destroyed by the US atomic bombings at the close of World War II. Nagasaki was bombed on 9 August 1945, marking the second and last time an atomic bomb was used as an act of war. The atomic explosion at Nagasaki killed between 35,000 to 40,000 instantly, while many thousands more continued to die for months afterward from the effects of burns, radiation sickness and other injuries compounded by illness and malnutrition.
