Today marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Hiroshima is better known, being the first and involving a larger bomb. Yet both bombings stand among the most extreme evils man has inflicted on man.
Much like Goa is the Catholic state of India, Nagasaki is the most Catholic city in Japan. Both owe those titles to a founding member of the Jesuit order, Saint Francis Xavier.
Francis arrived in Goa in 1542 under the orders of King John III of Portugal to re-Christianise the settled Portuguese, who were apparently neglecting their religious duties — perhaps unsurprisingly, as a significant contingent had been made up of Degredados, exiled convicts. Francis would never return to Europe, and Goa marked the beginning of his extraordinary missionary efforts in Asia.
It was in Malaysia that Francis made his first Japanese friend, a repentant murderer named Anjirō. Enticed by the missionary prospects of the country, after being informed by passing merchants that the Japanese were “very reasonable people”, Francis made the journey to the Land of the Rising Sun on 27 July 1549.
An early observation of Francis’s was that the Japanese were less impressed by the Christian asceticism which had proved popular in India and were sartorial enthusiasts. He dressed himself in fine cassocks and acted as a grand foreign dignitary, to ensure his preaching rights were granted by the Japanese daimyos (lords).
Francis left for China, where he died. His followers in Japan pressed on, and in 1563 Ōmura Sumitada, a Japanese daimyo, converted to Christianity. In 1580, Sumitada ceded Nagasaki “in perpetuity” to the Jesuits, and thus the centre of Japanese Christianity was born — so much so that Nagasaki became affectionately referred to as “Little Rome”.
The flourishing of Japanese Catholicism did not persist, and it was soon met with severe persecution. In 1597, the 26 Martyrs of Japan — made up of both missionaries and Japanese, amongst whom was a 12-year-old boy — were crucified on a hill overlooking Nagasaki. In 1614, Catholicism was officially banned in the country, and centuries of persecution ensued.
However, in what might be one of the greatest examples of human fortitude, the Japanese Church went underground and maintained its faith. Urakami, a region in the northern part of Nagasaki, became a Christian stronghold where believers practised the religion in secret.
Through the use of hidden symbols, such as disguising Christian prayers as Buddhist chants and making icons of the Virgin Mary that resembled Buddhist deities, religious practices were retained. Despite the absence of priests, the minimum of sacramental practice existed as the underground communities appointed lay leaders who were responsible for baptising children.
After a long period of isolationism, Japan began to admit foreigners again as it ended its Seclusion Policy (Sakoku). In 1863, the French Fr Bernard Petitjean arrived in Nagasaki, tasked with building a church honouring the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan.
The church was intended to serve the developing European community in Japan and was opened in 1865. Shortly after, Fr Petitjean found a group of Japanese locals waiting outside the church and was approached by three elderly women who knelt and said, “The heart of all of us here is the same as yours.” They were the Kakure Kirishitan (secret Christians) who had managed to hold on to the Catholic faith despite more than 250 years of persecution and some of history’s most stringent isolationist policies.
Around 30,000 Christians came out of hiding in the subsequent years as Japan reintroduced religious freedom. Sadly, this reunion of faith was not as easy as one might hope. The Kakure Kirishitan had adopted many of their own belief systems and habits — a fusion of Shintoism and what was remembered of their ancestors’ catechesis. Only about half were happy to accept the faith which the 19th-century missionaries held. Even today, many Japanese Christians continue to practise the clandestine blended Christianity of those hidden years.
At approximately 11:02 a.m. Japan Standard Time on 9 August 1945, the second of the USA’s atomic bombs was dropped. The intended target had been the city of Kokura, chosen because it housed a large arsenal and was a significant military-industrial centre. However, poor visibility caused by cloud cover, smoke from prior bombings, and fires from a nearby air raid obscured the target, and the secondary target, Nagasaki, was chosen.
Ultimately, however, even the secondary target was not struck as planned. Instead of hitting the industrial centre, it hit the primarily residential area of Urakami, the Christian centre of Japan.
By 1945, Urakami numbered some 12,000 Christians. On Thursday 9 August many came together to pray as a community, preparing for the great feast of the Assumption which would be held the following Wednesday, 15 August. They gathered in their cathedral, which had been finished 20 years prior and was the largest Christian structure in the Asia-Pacific region. The bomb fell just 500 metres away, destroying the cathedral and killing its worshippers.
As many as 8,500 Christians in Urakami died — 71 per cent of the community.
The ensuing years were also times of intense difficulty for Japan’s Catholic population. Disproportionately affected by the attack, rates of leukaemia and other cancers rose significantly within the community. They also faced deep social stigma, as hibakusha (bomb survivors) were often shunned due to fears that radiation sickness was contagious or hereditary.
Slowly, the community showed signs of recovery. By 1959, the new Urakami Cathedral was completed — smaller than the original but built on the same site, with two bell towers and incorporating some of the bomb-damaged statues and bricks as memorial elements.
In the decades after, Urakami’s Catholics became some of Japan’s most vocal witnesses against nuclear weapons. Survivors gave testimony at schools, churches, and international gatherings, and the Catholic peace movement in Japan, especially the Catholic Council for Justice and Peace, was shaped heavily by Nagasaki voices.
In 1981, Pope Saint John Paul II visited Nagasaki, where he prayed at the hypocentre and in Urakami Cathedral.
Today, Urakami Cathedral remains an active parish, pilgrimage site, and centre for memorial services. Remaining steadfast in the faith despite persecution, isolation, and nuclear weapons, the Catholics of Nagasaki are perhaps the most deserving recipients of the promise of Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
