The Atomic Bombing Of Nagasaki: The Day The World Must Never Forget

August 9th, 1945

The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima changed the nation of Japan overnight and forever. Home to an estimated population of 240,000 in 1945, the second atomic bomb took the lives of over 73,000 people in the port city of Nagasaki.

Leaving 75,000 injured and over 120,000 homeless the blast completely leveled everything within a 6.7-kilometer radius of the epicenter, leaving a wake of devastation that the World should be careful never to forget.

Mugenzai No Sono and the days after the atom bomb in Nagasaki

In the hill-country of Nagasaki, safely outside the initial devastation of the atomic bomb sits Mugenzai No Sono. The Franciscan Monastery was founded by Saint Maximilian Kolbe and is known by Catholics as the Garden of the Immaculata.

Inspired by the Lourdes-like grotto on the site Kolbe chose to found his monastery in the green hillside of Nagasaki. The Polish priest returned to Europe before the outbreak of World War II and ultimately died in a concentration camp at the hands of the Nazi regime.

His legacy lives on in Nagasaki, however. The monastery’s location made it an ideal place to shelter survivors from the fallout of the atomic bomb, and as a result, many lives were saved in the days after the bomb.

Modern-day Nagasaki

Nagasaki’s tourism industry is built around and interwoven with Catholicism. A decidedly Catholic place, Nagasaki is home to the memorial of the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan, the Franciscan Monastery of Mugenzai No Sono, and several beautiful churches. It’s a breathtaking place filled with charming people who have lost so much and yet care greatly for others.