Nagasaki

I went on a trip to Nagasaki with a few people from school today. The city has obviously an unfortunate kind of fame for being the second city where an atomic bomb was dropped. Nowadays it's a bustling port town and said to be one of the most beautiful cities in Southern Japan.

We had to get up pretty early (for a Sunday morning at least) and take the direct bus to Nagasaki. Took us about 2 hours to get there. We were all being inappropriate by chatting loudly in the bus, which is obviously a "no-go" in Japan. But keeping your trap shut for 2 hours gets kinda boring, doesn't it?

Martin, the old American guy had gotten our tickets from Evan to take care of. Obviously Evan thought an elderly male would be the more responsible than any of the chicks on the trip. Weeeell, Martin got off at a totally wrong stop and we then had to go and look for him with the guide that we met at the next stop. We were immediately asking for our tickets, our trust in him had somehow been shattered...

Our guide first led us to the Nagasaki peace statue (through the usual striking heat). There was a nice park with a pretty ugly, unhumanly muscled statue. But it's probably the though that counts. There were small shrines with origami cranes next to it. There is a story about a girl who got sick after the Nagasaki bombing and her mother promised that she'd get better if she would make 1000 paper cranes, one each day. The paper crane has since been a symbol for good luck. There were a few smaller statues donated by various countries. There were quite a lot from socialist countries and I assume that the statues were not just intended to be a symbol of peace, but also a demonstration of the "American devil's vice".

Our guide showed us Nagasaki's large catholic church that had originally been built by the Dutch and was reconstructed after 1945 (Pope's visit followed later on). There had been a lot of Dutch merchants in the area in the 18th century and they brought the Christian faith to the region.

The atomic bomb museum was simple in style, but very memorable for its content. The atmosphere is made to really recall visitors the horrors of the 1945 bombing. One of the most striking exhibits was a clock that had stoped at 11.03 am when the bomb was dropped over Nagasaki. I spent quite some time watching interviews with survivors. They were really, really touching. Some had lost all family members, a teacher his students, others had been seriously handicapped and confined to bed for years. This was really heavy to see. I really liked the museum overall. But I have to say that it didn't quite acurately depict Japan's role in the 2nd WW.

We then went to China town and had lunch and visited the former Dutch merchants quarter Dejima. The Dutch had been confined to a small island which they couldn't leave. Only their Japanese courtesans were allowed to enter the island. This was done to eliminate foreign influence on the local culture as much as possible.

Nagasaki is a city built on several hills, so we climed one (well, by elevator to be honest) to enjoy the view over the port. Mitsubishi is still the largest employer in the city and is located next to the port. The Misubishi production sites had actually been a major reason for the bombing (allthough Nagasaki was not the originally sought out target). The residential area on the hills offers great views, but is obviously not so popular with residents because of the inconvenience in transport (no streets up there).

The confucian temple we wanted to visit finally was already closed. So we went to the shopping mall for some ice cream and then hopped on the bus back to Fukuoka. This time we were being a bit more quiet and less annoying to fellow Japanese travellers...