Wednesday Oct 28, 2026
Hi Gang! We were docked in Nagasaki, Japan today. Nagasaki was the 1st port open to foreign trade in Japan. Dutch traders were the first ones here and their culture spread throughout Japan. This is also where Christianity first started in Japan and it’s also where the oldest Christian church in Japan is located, the Oura Cathedral.
But of course what most people probably remember Nagasaki for is the place where the Atomic bomb hit during WWII. It was on Aug 9, 1945 at 11:02 AM when the bomb dropped, 3 days after Hiroshima was hit by an Atomic bomb. Over 74,000 people were killed and almost 75,000 were injured. Out of all that tragedy, there was a miracle story of a 10 year old girl who happened to be playing inside one of the bunkers and was not killed and actually lived to be 80 years old!
For our tour today we went to three places which were the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, the Nagasaki Peace Park, and the Nagasaki Museum of History & Culture. Outside the A-Bomb Museum we saw a beautiful statue dedicated to all the teachers and students that were killed during the war. Inside we saw a replica of the actual A-Bomb which they nicknamed “Fat Man” since it was so round. We also saw a picture of the mushroom cloud taken from the plane that dropped the bomb.
At the Peace Park we saw a huge Peace Statue of a man with his right arm pointing to the sky to warn of nuclear bombshell, his left arm outstretched to mean peace and his eyes closed to mean a silent prayer for world peace. It was very powerful. There were many statues given by many countries on the 50th anniversary of the bombing and I included the one from the USA called “Constellation Earth” which had 7 kids to equal the 7 continents.
Of course there was also a monument at “ground zero” where the bomb detonated. We then went to the Nagasaki Museum of History & Culture. There we saw the story depicted of the Dutch coming and the spreading of Christianity. There was also a very large statue of the last samurai of Japan named Sakamaoto Ryoma. All in all it was a very powerful and moving tour.
After that we came back to the ship and had lunch. We went back out into the terminal and did some shopping (I’m looking at you grandkids!). We then had to go thru a mandatory exit immigration since tomorrow we are leaving Japan and going to South Korea. We’ll be in South Korea for the next 6 days returning to Japan on Nov 4th! The immigration process was very quick and smooth.
We then had dinner, saw the show (Sueli Tang, piano player from the other day), and listened to the guitar player Drex since they gave the piano player Kelly the night off. Tomorrow we are in Yeosu, South Korea. Another country here we come!
PS: At the Peace Park we saw two large stone lanterns that were the only things not destroyed from the Atomic Bomb! Heck, I should have rubbed those for good luck and not that silly ox! Lol
