Nagasaki (長崎) is a port city and capital of Nagasaki
Prefecture. It is located on the southwest coast of the island
of Kyūshū.
At the end of the 12th century, Nagasaki was
still an insignificant fishing village with a beautiful but
remote natural harbor. This changed when the first Europeans
reached Japan in the 16th century. Trade relations were
established, with Portuguese traders bringing goods from both
their homeland and China. They were followed by Jesuits who
began missionary work. This soon came to an end: under Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, 26 Christians and their missionaries were executed.
In the meantime, the Dutch had also set up a trading post, and
Chinese merchants were also active on the island. However, the
freedom of movement of foreign traders was very limited, so that
cultural exchange with Europe was only possible in Nagasaki. On
August 9, 1945, this city was the target of an atomic bomb that
destroyed the city and claimed more than 100,000 lives.
Nagasaki is now once again a thriving city with around 400,000
inhabitants, and the port is a destination for merchant ships
and cruise ships from all over the world.
Peace Park (平和公園, heiwa kōen)
Cenotaph at the Hypocenter
National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims
Dejima (出島),
a once artificial island that served as the headquarters of the Dutch
trading post.
Fukusai-ji (福済寺), a Zen temple also known as the
Nagasaki Universal Temple. The building is shaped like a turtle, with a
statue of the goddess Kannon on its 18-meter-high back. The original
building was completed in 1628 and was destroyed by fire during the
atomic bombing. The current building was completed in 1979. The temple
bell is rung daily at 11:02 a.m., the time of the atomic bomb explosion.
Sōfuku-ji (崇福寺), a Buddhist temple founded by Chinese emigrants in 1629
Double-arch bridge (眼鏡橋, megane-bashi), which together with its
reflection in the water evokes the image of glasses (megane).
Chinatown
Glover Garden (グラバー園, gurabā-en), the former residence of
the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911).
Huis Ten Bosch
(ハウステンボス), Netherlands-themed amusement park Kōfuku-ji (興福寺), a Buddhist
temple of the Ōbaku denomination founded in 1624. Monument of the 26
Martyrs (日本二十六聖人記念館, Nihon jin-nijūroku-shōnin-kinenkan), Basilica of
the Twenty-six Holy Martyrs of Japan (大浦天主堂, Ōura Tenshudō) Suwa Shrine
(鎮西大社諏訪神社, Chinzei-Taisha-Suwa-jinja) of the guardian deity Nagasaki’s
Urakami Cathedral (浦上天主堂, Urakami Tenshudō)
Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum
Memorial of the 26
Christian Martyrs
Siebold Memorial Museum
Nagasaki Prefectural Art
Museum
Endo Shusaku Literary Museum
By plane
Nagasaki Airport (IATA: NGS) is located about 25km north
of the city on an island. There are mainly flight connections within the
country, including to Seoul and Shanghai.
By train
Nagasaki
Central Station (長崎駅; tram stop and buses in front of the forecourt).
The 125km long Nagasaki route runs from Hakata. Since the beginning of
2022, Shinkansen has also been running. Special express trains, the
Seaside Liner, go to Sasebo. Features: elevator, disabled toilet,
arrival.
By bus
The Nagasaki Ken-ei Bus Terminal is at the
main station.
By road
National Road 2020 to Fukuoka.
By
ship
There are ferry connections to Busan and then to Jeju. Note the
entry regulations, which require electronic registration at least 72
hours before checking in on board. Cruise ships pass under the 1 Venus
Wing Bridge (Megami Bridge) and dock at the 2 Matsugae Pier.
Single rides on the tram cost 130 yen. Payment can be made using the Nimoca prepaid card or other cards commonly used throughout the country.
Nagasaki stretches across the southern half of the Nishisonogi Peninsula in the north and the Nagasaki Peninsula in the south. To the west is the Sumō-nada sea area, to the northeast is Ōmura Bay and to the south is the Amakusa-nada sea area. These belong to the East China Sea.
The city was founded before 1500 and was originally an insignificant,
remote fishing village, whose development only experienced a boom after
the arrival of the Europeans in the middle of the 16th century. In 1543,
a ship from Malacca landed on the coast of the southern island of
Tanegashima. The Portuguese merchants on board presented the inhabitants
with some rifles in gratitude for their support. This is considered the
first direct contact between Japanese and Europeans and the beginning of
the history of firearms in Japan. Six years later, the co-founder of the
Society of Jesus and missionary Francisco Xavier reached Kagoshima in
the south of Kyushu and during his two-year stay laid the foundations
for the Jesuit missionary work as well as a permanent trade exchange
with Portuguese traders from Macau. Since good relations with the
missionaries meant participation in the highly lucrative long-distance
trade, some regional rulers (Daimyo) were baptized. The most important
of these was Ōmura Sumitada, who made a great profit from his
conversion. After initial attempts with smaller ports such as
Kuchinotsu, in 1571 he designated Nagasaki, which was sheltered from the
wind in a deep bay, as the port of call for the Portuguese carracks.
The small settlement grew quickly; the names of many of the city
districts still show the origin of the resettlers who arrived from all
parts of Kyushu. A number of Portuguese products imported via Nagasaki
(e.g. bread, tempura (fried vegetables), buttons, card games, certain
fabrics and clothing, as well as products from Portuguese overseas
settlements (tobacco and quinine bark from America, fruit trees from
Southeast Asia)) found their way into everyday Japanese culture. The
Portuguese also brought goods from the Chinese Empire. At the same time,
the Jesuits founded churches and nursing homes in Nagasaki and took over
the administration of the settlement.
In 1587, Nagasaki's
prosperity was threatened for the first time. After long military
conflicts for supremacy over the archipelago, Oda Nobunaga had brought
the regional rulers under his control, but was killed in 1582. Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, one of his followers, took power as the new Kampaku and
continued to drive the unification of the empire. The uncontrolled,
lucrative long-distance trade of the southern regional rulers and the
dominance of the Portuguese in silk imports as well as the unwillingness
of the Christian missionaries to live tolerantly with the other
religions in the country were disruptive. In order to curb the strong
Christian influence in southern Japan, Hideyoshi ordered the expulsion
of all missionaries. The Jesuits lost the administrative control of
Nagasaki that had been given to them by the prince of Ōmura Sumitada,
which now went to the central government. Other ad hoc edicts followed.
Some measures were only implemented locally and for a short time, but
over the years the persecution of Japanese and foreign Christians became
more severe. In 1597, Hideyoshi had 26 Franciscan and Jesuit
missionaries and Japanese converts to Christianity aged between 12 and
64 led from central Japan through the western parts of the country to
Nagasaki and crucified there as a deterrent. However, the Portuguese
traders living in the city remained unmolested for the time being
because of their economic importance.
When Tokugawa Ieyasu took power as shogun almost 20 years later after
Hideyoshi's death and the decisive Battle of Sekigahara, the situation
in Nagasaki hardly improved. In 1614, Christianity was finally banned.
All missionaries were deported, as were those regional rulers who did
not want to renounce Christianity. A brutal persecution followed, with
thousands killed and tortured in Nagasaki and other parts of Japan. The
so-called Shimabara Uprising, which flared up in the Shimabara, Amakusa
region in 1637, was initially directed against the extreme tax burdens
that the regional ruler had imposed on his subjects. It was only during
the course of the fighting against the growing superiority of the
government troops that the conflict also took on religious aspects.
After the laborious suppression, the shogunate decided to expel all
Iberians, including the last merchants in Nagasaki. This ended Japan's
"Christian century". Some Japanese remained secretly Christian, and some
of these families (Kakure Kirishitan) survived the persecutions that
continued until the country was reopened in the 19th century.
The
Dutch had maintained a trading post in Hirado since 1609 with the
permission of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Since they were in competition with the
Portuguese, showed no interest in missionary activities and complied
with the central government's demands to bombard the Hara fortress with
their ship's cannons during the Shimabara Rebellion, they were exempted
from the expulsion of the Europeans in 1639. However, their settlement
was moved from Hirado to Nagasaki in 1640/41 in order to prevent the
economic collapse threatened by the absence of Portuguese ships and at
the same time to better control their activities. Until 1855, Japan's
contacts with the West were via this small trading post (Dejima).
From then on, Chinese merchants were also only allowed to land in
Nagasaki. From 1688, their freedom of movement was restricted to a
walled settlement (Tōjin yashiki, "Chinese estate"), similar to that of
the Dutch. As a result, the city flourished economically again and at
the same time became a hub for the dissemination of Western science and
technology to Japan. As early as the second half of the 17th century,
knowledge-hungry Japanese were moving to Nagasaki to obtain information
and materials from interpreters or others who had access to the Dejima
trading post. With the increased promotion of "Dutch studies" (Rangaku)
by the Shōgun Yoshimune, study trips to Nagasaki (Nagasaki-yūgaku)
experienced a further upswing in the 18th century. The houses of
learned interpreter families such as Motoki or Yoshio, with their rich
collections of books and objects, became a meeting point for countless
visitors and students from all parts of the country.
After the US Commodore Matthew Perry landed in Japan in 1853 and the
shogunate collapsed shortly thereafter, Japan opened its gates again.
Nagasaki became a treaty port in 1859. Europeans settled in Nagasaki,
and on March 17, 1865, the French Catholic priest Bernard Petitjean met
about 15 Christians living in Urakami in the newly built Ōura Church,
who had previously practiced their Christianity in secret underground.
This event is known as the revival of Christianity in Japan.
In
Nagasaki, as in the rest of the country, a comprehensive modernization
began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The previous shogunate
administration of Nagasaki became the [city] prefecture (-fu) of
Nagasaki in 1868, which was converted into a normal prefecture (-ken) in
1869 and was soon expanded to include surrounding principalities. The
modern city of Nagasaki was founded in 1878 as the Nagasaki district
(Nagasaki-ku), which at the time comprised 87 chō. In 1889, when the
local government was modernized under Prussian influence, the
present-day Nagasaki-shi emerged, with a population of 54,502 at the
time. Nagasaki quickly gained economic dominance, especially in the area
of shipbuilding. By the Second World War, the importance of the local
industry as a shipyard center for the Imperial Navy had grown.
The shipbuilding industry, which gave Nagasaki economic importance, made the city a possible target for the Americans in World War II. The USA chose the city of Kokura as the target for the second atomic bomb. Due to bad weather conditions, the bombing was aborted three times. The multiple aborts caused the plane to lose so much fuel that the plane could only reach the US base again by losing the weight of the bomb. Therefore, the city of Nagasaki, located southwest of Kokura, was chosen at short notice as the target for the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m., an American B-29 bomber, the Bockscar, dropped the nuclear weapon known as Fat Man over the Mitsubishi weapons factory just as a gap in the clouds opened up. The original target was the shipyards. The bomb missed its intended target by more than 2 km because the drop had to be radar-guided due to heavy cloud cover. According to estimates by the Committee for the Preservation of Atomic Bomb Artifacts in December 1945, almost four months after the bomb was dropped, 74,000 people were killed and just as many injured. Of 52,000 buildings, 19,400 were destroyed. Many people died as a result of radiation sickness (estimates: 1946 ≈ 75,000, 1950 ≈ 140,000). The survivors are called Hibakusha. Fat Man (20 kt TNT equivalent) was the second atomic bomb to be used on Japan, after "Little Boy" (13 kt TNT equivalent) dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier.
After the war, the city was rebuilt, but due to the great destruction, it looked completely different to how it had looked before the war. New temples and churches were built - Christianity even gained significant popularity after the war, and Nagasaki still has the highest proportion of Christians in the population of all Japanese cities. Some rubble was left standing as a memorial, such as the one-legged torii and a stone arch near ground zero. New buildings were also built as memorials, such as the Nagasaki Cathedral e.g. the Atomic Bomb Museum.
The mayor of Nagasaki (Nagasaki-shichō) has been Tomihisa Taue since
April 2007, and he was most recently re-elected for a third term in the
unified elections in April 2015 without a vote due to a lack of opposing
candidates. The Nagasaki city parliament (Nagasaki-shigikai) was also
newly elected in the unified elections in 2015.
The city of
Nagasaki forms a 14-seat constituency for the 46-member Nagasaki
prefectural parliament (Nagasaki-kengikai), which is also elected in the
unified election cycle. Of the representatives from the city (as of
October 2015), four each belong to the LDP faction and the
DPJ-SDP-supported “Reform 21” faction. The Kōmeitō has two
representatives, the KPJ has one, and most of the other representatives
are one-man factions.
In elections to the lower house of the
national parliament, the city extends into the constituencies Nagasaki 1
(lies entirely in the city of Nagasaki) and Nagasaki 2 (includes only
the incorporated cities of Kinkai and Sotome and otherwise mainly
Isahaya and other cities in the prefecture). Constituency 1 is currently
represented by the Liberal Democrat Tsutomu Tomioka, who prevailed in
2012 and 2014 against the long-standing incumbent Yoshiaki Takaki
(Democrat), but who won a seat in the proportional representation in
Kyūshū after relatively narrow constituency defeats in both elections.
Constituency 2 was initially held for a long time by Fumio Kyūma after
the electoral reform of the 1990s, but was defeated by the Democrat
Eriko Fukuda in the LDP's landslide defeat in 2009; since 2012, the
constituency has been back in LDP hands with Kanji Katō.