Atomic bomb in Nagasaki killed 2/3 of Catholics on August 9, 1945

This August 9 marks the 79th anniversary of the second atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Japan, this time against Nagasaki, a city with a rich history of Christian martyrs from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The day of the launch of Fat Man —the name of the bomb—, the small Japanese Catholic community lost two thirds of its members in Nagasaki.

Following the destruction of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the US military high command, led by President Harry Truman, set its sights on the city of Kokura to force Japan’s surrender. However, bad weather caused the objective to be changed to Nagasaki.

Nagasaki had about 240,000 inhabitants. A miscalculation by the Americans meant that the bomb did not fall in the center of the city, but the effect was still devastating and immediately killed some 75,000 people.

In the days that followed, a similar number died from injuries and illnesses caused by radiation.

History of the Catholic community in Nagasaki

Nagasaki was an important center of Catholicism in Japan since the 16th century, promoted by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries.

The persecution against Catholics, which came almost immediately, was remembered in 2007 in the book of memories of Cardinal Giacomo Biffi – who died in 2017 – in which he expresses the strong impact that the news of the atomic bombs had on him. launched over Japan in 1945.

“I had already heard about Nagasaki. I had encountered it repeatedly in the Manual of history of Catholic missions by Giuseppe Schmidlin, three volumes published in Milan in 1929. In Nagasaki, the first consistent Catholic community in Japan emerged in the 16th century.

“In Nagasaki,” he noted, “on February 5, 1597, thirty-six martyrs had given their lives for Christ (six Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits, twenty-six laymen), canonized by Pius IX in 1862.”

However, “when the persecution resumed in 1637, up to thirty-five thousand Christians were murdered. Afterwards the young community lives, so to speak, in the catacombs, separated from the rest of Catholicity and without priests; but it is not extinguished.”

Thus, in 1865 “Father Petitjean discovered this ‘Clandestine Church’, which was made known to him after having assured himself that he was celibate, that he was devoted to Mary and that he obeyed the Pope of Rome; and thus sacramental life can be resumed regularly,” continued Cardinal Biffi.

Almost twenty years later, in 1889, “full religious freedom was proclaimed in Japan, and everything flourished again.”

“On June 15, 1891, the Diocese of Nagasaki was canonically erected, which in 1927 welcomed Monsignor Hayasaka as pastor, who was the first Japanese bishop and was personally consecrated by Pius IX. From Schmidlin we come to know that in 1929, of 94,096 Japanese Catholics, some 63,698 were from Nagasaki,” added Cardinal Biffi.

That is to say, 16 years before the atomic disaster, a little more than 63,000 faithful lived in Nagasaki.

Thus, after this brief summary of Catholicism in this city, the cardinal writes:

“We can well assume that the atomic bombs were not dropped at random. The question is therefore inevitable: How was it chosen for the second hecatomb, among all of them, precisely the city in Japan where Catholicism, apart from having the most glorious history, was most widespread and affirmed?