Nagasaki

The first thing you think of when you hear Nagasaki is, of course, the atomic bomb that was dropped on the city on August 9, 1945. The bomb exploded 500 meters over the city at 11:02 AM, killing between 60,000 and 80,000 people. In the context of a war in which some 80 million people died, that’s not a lot. But when you read the stories of the survivors you realize that those millions of deaths are each a tragedy. You’d like to think that we’d learn from these stories and say “never again.” Looking around at the world today one has to wonder, though.

We began our day with a trip to the Atomic Bomb Museum. It’s difficult to say you “enjoyed” such a place, but it was very interesting. The artifacts on display and the stories shared made a historical event feel close and personal.

Just outside the museum is the Peace Park. This has sculptures that various countries contributed as their versions of a vision for peace. We happened to be there at 11:02, at which time bells are rung to commemorate the nuclear attack. The excursion we were on would have taken us back to the ship, but we decided we’d like to walk back and see some of the city.

The walk was about 5 km, so it was a pretty good hike. We saw cherry trees in bloom, the local soccer stadium, and the Uragami River that runs through the city. The weather was threatening rain, but we only had a few drops. We were back to the ship by about 1:30, at which point we grabbed some lunch. We gave the boysfree time while Liz and I went back out into the city. We walked up to the Hamamachi Arcade, which was very cool. It’s a shopping area that consists of pedestrian streets covered with a roof. The streets were clearly once used for vehicle traffic but have been turned into walkways, and very successfully. The rain came as we headed back, but we were prepared with raincoats and it was not a problem.

As we were gearing up to leave we saw a school band assembling on the dock. They serenaded us with songs as we pulled away and even had a banner reading “See You Again in Nagasaki.” It was amazing.Read more