Showing posts with label Nagasaki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nagasaki. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A Happier View of Nagasaki

When I was in Nagasaki I wandered around in the sweltering heat and explored.

Peiron Boat Race: I was lucky enough to see the Peiron dragon boat races, which were part of a two day festival. This brought me back to my days on crew; however, our boats did not hold 26 rowers, were not 14-meter-long wooden boats, and did not have drum and gong beats. The annual summer event is said to have been started about 360 years ago by Chinese people living in Nagasaki as a form of prayer to the sea god.













Chinatown:



Megane Bashi: also called Spectacle Bridge because the double arch reflected in the water looks like a pair of spectacles.





Look at the first picture of rocks, do you see anything special?? Then look at the second picture, I think it is a reminder to us to look at the little things and you can find something special and there is love everywhere.



Random:



Suwa Shrine: Is a Shinto Shrine that is located at the top of 277 steps, lots of steps in the heat! It is also located on the slopes of Mount Tamazono-san, so you can get some wonderful views. It was established as a way of stopping and reverting the conversion to Christianity that was taking place in Nagasaki. It survived the bombing of Nagasaki.









Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Catholicism in Nagaski

In Nagaski there are two important memorials that are actually Catholic related. The first is Urakami Cathedral also known as St. Mary's Cathedral. This Church is extremely interesting because of its history before the bomb, during the bombing, and after the bomb. I found some information online (thank you wikipedia)so I could explain it well: the construction of the Church began in 1895 after the long standing ban against Christanity was lifted. In 1865, the French priest Bernard Petitjean discovered that almost all the Urakami villagers were Christian. Between 1869 and 1873, over 3600 villagers were banished. During their exile, 650 died martyrs. The persecuted Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) came back to their home village from 7 years exile in 1873, and decided to construct their own church.

They purchased the land of the village chief where the humiliating interrogations had taken place for two centuries. The annual "fumie" interrogations required those present to tread upon an icon of the Virgin Mary or Jesus. They thought the place was appropriate considering their memory of the long persecution. Construction of the building was started by Father Francine and was completed under the direction of Father Regani. The frontal twin spires stood 64 meters high were constructed in 1875. When completed in 1925, it was the largest Catholic church in East Asia.

When the atomic bomb was dropped it detonated 500 meteres from the Cathedral. A replacement was built in 1959, after a serious debate between Nagasaki city government and the congregation. The city government suggested preserving the destroyed cathedral as a historical heritage, and offered alternate site for a new church. However, Christians in Nagasaki strongly wanted to rebuild their cathedral on the original place for their historical reasons. The place is a symbol of the persecution and their suffering. In 1980 it was remodeled to more closely resemble the original French style. It was beautiful inside; however, I couldn't take pictures inside!

This is all that is left of the original Cathedral.






The second Catholic Memorial in Nagaski is the Memorial to the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan. On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians – six European Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys – were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki on the orders of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. They were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears. Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out again in 1613 and 1630. On September 10, 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the nineteenth century.



Monday, August 9, 2010

Another Place of Destruction, Another Anniversary

August 6th was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, well August 9th is the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. At 11:01 AM, the "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, the nuclear bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima was "Little Boy." When I went to Hiroshima I was just filled with the sense of peace and tranquility that was not the same feeling I had in Nagasaki. The Peace Park in Hiroshima is very big and is not surrounded by houses but in Nagasaki the A Bomb site is part of the town, the Peace park is on a hill. When you are at the A Bomb site in Nagasaki you can feel the sense of destruction and sadness. I went to Nagasaki a week before the anniversary.




The hypocenter of the A bomb: then and now:







Other Monuments:






The Atomic Bomb Museum. It was definitely very interesting and they had videos of the events leading up to the bomb that I really enjoyed. So the little boy in the picture and made me laugh in a very sad place. He was filled with so much energy and joy and every time I turned around he was either sliding down a podium, rolling down the spiral walk way or just running around. He was not with his parents when he was doing this because in Japan it is totally natural to let your kids wander around. He really put a smile on my face and made me see joy where there was so much sadness and destruction.





These are made out of origami birds. At work our summer hires made one of these and they made over 1000 of them. They were all over the peace park and at the museum they used them to make posters and other pictures.




Peace Park: