and then i nerded out in Nagasaki

Here’s a healthy dose of history for y’all.

Check it out: Nagasaki.

Opened by the Portuguese in 1571. Flourished as a busy trading port/center for Christian missionary activities. In 1641, after the adoption of a national ban on Christianity and the expulsion of the Portuguese, the Dutch trading post and Chinese settlement in Nagasaki became Japan’s only points of contact with the outside world. The monopoly lasted for more than 200 years and created in Nagasaki a unique blend of cultures, and a liberal atmosphere unheard of in other parts of the country.

Then, at 11:02 am on August 9^th, 1945 (3 days after Hiroshima) the USA dropped yet another A-bomb. This time, killing over 75,000 of Nagasaki’s 240,000 population. Over 70% of the bomb’s victims were women, children, and senior citizens. Another 75,000 were injured and it is estimated that that number again have subsequent died as a result of the blast. Anyone out in the open within two km of the epicenter suffered severe burns from the heat of the explosion; even four km away exposed skin was burnt. Everything within a one km radius of the explosion was destroyed, and the resultant fires burnt out almost everything within a four km radius. A third of the city was wiped out.

Let me break it down some more:

Total population of Nagasaki: 240,000

Dead: 73,884

Injured: 74,909

Homeless: 120,820

Damaged houses within 4 km radius: 18,409

Totally destroyed houses within 4 km radius: 11,574 (1/3 of all houses in city)

Despite being ½ the size, Nagasaki’s Atomic Bomb Museum somehow sunk in deeper then Hiroshima’s museum. It felt more personal---- more horribly intimate. Hiroshima had larger collections, larger exhibits, and even more testimonies… but Nagasaki… maybe its exhibits were more powerful in their simplicity? Maybe less was somehow more? I’m not sure. But it was incredible.

Peace Statue (in Peace Park)--- completed in 1955, 10 years after the atomic bombing. It’s by far the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Regardless, the raised arm points to the threat of nuclear weapons, and the out-stretched arm symbolizes peace.

Fukusai-ji Temple: a former national treasure--- build by a Chinese Zen priest in 1628. 20 years later, the temple was dedicated to the goddess of Mercy, Kannon, in order to make the temple prosper. The A-bomb completely destroyed the original temple, along with its precious cultural inheritance—thus in 1979, it was rebuilt--- in the shape of a giant turtle, with an 18 meter-high figure of the goddess Kannon on its back. At 11:02 am daily—the exact time of the explosion, a bell tolls from the temple.

26 martyrs memorial:

26 Christians were crucified here in 1957, during Japan’s most brutal crackdown on Christianity. Of those remembered: 6 Spanish friars, and 20 Japanese—the youngest being boys aged 12 and 13.

Glover Garden!

After traveling to Nagasaki from Scotland, Thomas Blake Glover built a house on the hill in Minami-Yamate in 1863. At the time, Nagasaki was vibrant with the energy of people looking toward a new dawn for Japan. Here were the merchants from across the seas, pursuing dreams of fortune; the revolutionaries seeking an end to the Shogunate; and the youth of Japan eager to study the West. Today---- over a century later, the memories of Glover’s life here with his wife and children remain, untouched, along with the homes of the merchants who lived in Nagasaki. In short, you can explore a bunch of European style mansions from the city’s pioneering Meiji period. Factor in the fact that they’re all situated on a hillside overlooking the sea, and surrounded by incredible gardens/goldfish ponds—and it becomes a super cool way to waste the afternoon.