Nagasaki is a city located on the western coast of the island of Kyūshū. The city is known for being the second city to fall victim to an atomic bomb, when the United States dropped Fat Man on August 9, 1945. But Nagasaki has also made a name for itself in other ways over time. It was here that Japan had its only open port for foreign trade during the era of the isolation policy from the 1500s to the 1800s, and thus a special part of Japan’s history unfolded in the port of Nagasaki. In the subsequent Meiji period, Nagasaki became home to part of the Imperial Japanese Navy, before the city center was almost obliterated in 1945. Since then, Nagasaki has been rebuilt on the city’s beautiful seaside location.

It may be natural to explore Nagasaki by starting in 1945, when the city’s history was fundamentally changed. The atomic bomb is believed to have cost the lives of up to 75,000 people, and Hypocenter Park/Bakushin-chi kōen (爆微地公園) is the place where the atomic bomb detonated at a height of 500 meters above the city. The park was established to commemorate the blast and the victims, and you can see a preserved part of the walls of Urakami Cathedral/Urakami Tenshudō (浦上天主堂) close to the marking of the hypocenter. It was part of the city’s great cathedral, which was destroyed by the atomic bomb, and of which some things remained. The piece of brick was moved here as a symbol of the destruction and as a memorial to the victims.

A short distance north of Hypocenter Park is the Peace Park, Heiwa-kōen (平和公園), which was opened in 1955. The central element of the park is Kitamura Seibō’s ten-meter-tall Peace Statue/Heiwa kinenzō (平和祈念像), whose right hand points to the nuclear threat, while the left symbolizes eternal peace. The statue’s closed eyes represent the prayer for the souls of the bomb victims. In the Peace Park, you can see monuments for peace that other countries have donated to be erected in the name of peace.

If you continue a few streets east from the Peace Statue, you can see the rebuilt Urakami Cathedral, where mass was held when the atomic bomb detonated in 1945. The cathedral was originally built from 1895 after the lifting of the ban on Christianity in Japan. The church was completed in 1925 and destroyed in 1945. The congregation wanted a reconstruction at the original site, and the current cathedral opened in 1959. In front of the west-facing facade you can see remains of and from the bombed church.

In the same area is the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum/Nagasaki Genbaku Shiryōkan (長崎原爆資料館) and the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims/Kokuritsu Nagasaki Genbaku Shibotsusha Tsuitō Heiwa Kinenkan (国立長崎原爆死没者 追悼平和祈念館). The Atomic Bomb Museum opened in 1996 and tells the history before, during and after the detonation of the atomic bomb at 11:02:35 on August 9, 1945.

On the museum’s roof there is an observation deck where pictures illustrate Nagasaki after the bomb’s devastation in comparison to today’s Japanese metropolis. The Peace Memorial Hall is located next to the museum and was built as a place of prayer and remembrance for the victims of the atomic bomb. The hall was built in 2000-2002 with incorporation of pillars of light that represent the hope for peace on Earth.

A different way to see Nagasaki is to explore the city’s industrial heritage from the Meiji period. Several facilities and constructions stand as monuments from that time, and some of them are included in UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites. This is, for example, the large Mitsubishi Store Cantilever crane/Nakasaki Zōsenjo jaianto kanchirebākurēn (長崎造船所 ジャイアント・カンチレバークラーン), which was commissioned on the waterfront at the Mitsubishi shipyard in 1909.

Several other parts of the Mitsubishi Industrial Estate are also World Heritage Sites, such as the Glover House and Office/Kyū Gulabā jūtaku (旧グラバー家酒), named after Scotsman Thomas Glover, who moved to Nagasaki when the city’s port opened in 1859. Four years later his residence was completed, and it is Japan’s oldest European-style wooden building. Surrounding the house is the Glover Garden/Glover-en (グラバー園), which is a beautiful park and an open-air museum, where several older European-style buildings have been relocated over the years.

In central Nagasaki was Dejima (出島), an artificially created island from which Japan’s only trade with the outside world passed from 1634 to 1854. Dejima was visited by the Portuguese and later also by the Chinese and Dutch. The island was established to control trade and keep down Christianity, which had spread in the Nagasaki region. Dejima was approximately 120×75 meters in size and was connected to Nagasaki by a heavily guarded bridge.

Since 1996, work has been done to rebuild Dejima from the 19th century, and there are many buildings as in the environment of that time. The old access bridge from Nagasaki has also been rebuilt, leading from the north through the gate to the historic trading post. In the eastern part of Dejima, you can get an overview, as there is a miniature model of the district.

There are also interesting shrines and temples in Nagasaki like the Shinto shrine of Sannō Jinja (山王神社), famous for the half torii and the two camphor trees west of the shrine. One half of the torii was destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945, while the other half remained standing, and it still stands. There are two large camphor trees at the entrance, and they also survived the bomb as some of the so-called Hibakujumoku (被爆樹木), which is the name of trees that survived the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Suwa Jinja (諏訪神社) is another shrine. It was founded in 1614 as a measure to stop the growing Christianity in the area.

Suwa Jinja is today the most visited shrine in the city. Buddhism also thrives in Nagasaki, where you can visit the temple Kōfukuji (興福寺), which was founded in 1620, and Sōfukuji (崇福寺) from 1629. Both were founded for the city’s Chinese population, which you can experience in Nagasaki Chinatown/Nagasaki Shinchi Chūkagai (長崎新地中華街) as well.

Christianity is also historically interesting in Nagasaki and the area around the city. With the open port, Christianity spread with the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan, starting with Francis Xavier in 1549. From 1637-1638, Christianity was suppressed and banned until the mid-1800s. The ban caused the so-called hidden Christian places for unofficial Christian congregations, which built churches when the religion was allowed again.

Some of these places are today included in UNESCO’s list of world cultural heritage, and there are examples in Nagasaki such as Ōura Cathedral/Ōura Tenshudō (大浦天主堂). Ōura Cathedral is probably Japan’s most famous church. It was completed in 1864 and is also known as the Church of the 26 Martyrs, who were 26 Catholics who were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597.