March 28 Nagasaki

Nagasaki is much more relaxed than Tokyo but they can still smush themselves into to the train.

We took the tram to visit the hypo center; the spot where the A-bomb was dropped. Along the way we found the Catholic Cathedral which was destroyed in the blast but had a very touching story. The new cathedral is very nice and quite modern, but has also left areas of the original cathedral ruins (pic 1) as a reminder of what can happen if we don’t work for peace. Eerie and very powerful, at least for me it was.

We walked to hypo center of the bomb it includes, Helwa Koen Peace Park, a black monolith (pic 2) stands as a marker along w/ another partial wall from the Catholic Cathedral (moved here to make room for the new cathedral). Many many times we read the signs about a statue or marker and all call out “On Aug 9, 1945 at 11:02 am ….” always stating not to forget what happened and to prayer for those that suffered because of it.

In the same complex is the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, again many reminders of what happen but a big statement against war and nuclear weapons.

The best part of the day was the ship’s departure. There was a show put on by preschoolers. These kids were so darn cute in their traditional dress (pic 3). Another group of kids put on a show of Japanese drums on the pier for our departure (pic 4). This send off was very sweet, as we left Japan.