For two and a half centuries, when Japan was closed, Nagasaki was its only window on the outside world: the Dutch on an artificial island, the Chinese in their quarter, hidden Christians praying in secret. On 9 August 1945 the second atomic bomb fell here because the chosen city was covered in smoke and cloud, and it exploded right over the district of those Christians. Twelve stops between the Dutch island, Chinatown, the church of the reunion, the house of the Scot who armed the samurai, the hill of the twenty-six martyrs, the shrine built against the Christians, the one-legged torii, the hypocentre, the museum, the destroyed cathedral, the doctor's hut and the peace statue. Approximate audio duration: 20 minutes.
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Nagasaki: la ventana de Japón al mundo y la bomba que cayó por una nube
Durante dos siglos y medio, cuando Japón estaba cerrado, Nagasaki fue su única ventana al exterior: holandeses en una isla artificial, chinos en su barrio, cristianos escondidos que rezaban en secreto. El 9 de agosto de 1945, la segunda bomba atómica cayó aquí porque la ciudad elegida estaba cubierta de humo y nubes, y estalló justo sobre el barrio de esos cristianos. Doce paradas entre la isla de los holandeses, el barrio chino, la iglesia del reencuentro, la casa del escocés que armó a los samuráis, la colina de los veintiséis mártires, el santuario contra los cristianos, el torii de una sola pata, el hipocentro, el museo, la catedral destruida, la choza del médico y la estatua de la paz. Duración aproximada de audio: 20 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~20 min of audio · 10.71 km on foot (~2 h 40 min walking) · about 3 h in total
You are on Dejima, a small fan-shaped artificial island now surrounded by the city. The wooden houses and warehouses you see are reconstructions of the old Dutch trading post.
Nagasaki was born as a port in 1571, when a Christian feudal lord opened it to Portuguese ships. For decades firearms, missionaries, textiles and new ideas came in through here.
When the shogunate decided to close the country and ban Christianity, it built this island, between 1634 and 1636, to confine the Portuguese and control them. Shortly afterwards it expelled them for good.
From 1641 the only Europeans allowed t…
2
The Chinese of the Port
You are in Shinchi Chinatown, one of the three great Chinatowns of Japan. Red lanterns, restaurants, sweet shops. It smells of frying and spices.
The Dutch were not the only foreigners allowed. Chinese merchants could also come to Nagasaki, and there were far more of them. They brought silk, medicines, books and sugar.
Like the Dutch, the shogunate confined them. From 1689 they had to live in a walled compound, the Tang quarter, on a nearby hill. This Shinchi district was born on reclaimed land where their warehouses stood.
Chinese influence shows throughout the city: in Chinese-style templ…
3
Our Hearts Are the Same as Yours
Climb the steps to Oura Church, small, white and Gothic, on the hillside. It is the oldest surviving Christian church in Japan. French missionaries built it in 1864.
At that time Christianity was still forbidden to the Japanese. The church was only for foreigners arriving in Nagasaki after the port opened.
On 17 March 1865 a group of about fifteen people from the village of Urakami approached the priest, Father Bernard Petitjean. A woman whispered to him: our hearts are the same as yours. And she asked him where the image of the Virgin Mary was.
They were hidden Christians. For more than tw…
4
The Scot Who Armed the Samurai
You are in Glover Garden, at the top of the hill, overlooking the whole bay. The single-storey wooden house with a large veranda is Glover House, from 1863: the oldest Western-style wooden house in Japan.
Thomas Blake Glover was a Scottish merchant who arrived in Nagasaki in 1859, aged twenty-one, when the port opened to international trade. He started by selling tea. He ended up selling ships and weapons.
His customers were the samurai of the southern domains, Satsuma and Choshu, who wanted to bring down the shogunate. He sold them thousands of rifles. And he secretly helped five young men …
5
Twenty-Six Crosses on the Hill
You are on Nishizaka hill, in front of a long bronze wall with twenty-six figures in relief, hands joined, eyes raised to heaven. It is the monument to the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan.
On 5 February 1597, on this hill, twenty-six Christians were crucified on the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. They had been arrested in Kyoto and Osaka and forced to walk almost a thousand kilometres, in the depths of winter, to get here.
They were six Franciscan friars who had come from the Philippines, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese lay people, among them boys of twelve and thirteen. One of the …
6
A Shrine Against the Christians
Climb the long stone staircase of Suwa Shrine, Nagasaki's great Shinto shrine. From the top you can see the city, wedged between hills around the bay.
It was founded in 1625, at the height of the persecution, with shogunate support. Nagasaki had been an almost entirely Christian city, with churches, hospitals and schools. Buddhist and Shinto temples had been destroyed.
The shrine had a political mission: to bring the inhabitants back to Japanese religions. For years everyone had to prove they were not Christian. One of the tests was to step on an image of Christ or the Virgin: the fumie.
Ev…
7
The One-Legged Torii
You are on a sloping street in a residential neighbourhood. In front of you is something strange: a stone torii with a single pillar. The other half vanished. The crossbeam was left hanging in mid-air, balanced.
It is the entrance to Sanno Shrine, about eight hundred metres from the hypocentre of the Nagasaki bomb. The blast wave tore away one of the pillars. The other remained standing.
Further up, beside the shrine, are two great camphor trees. After the explosion they were left as burned trunks, leafless. Everyone thought they were dead.
After a few months they began to sprout. Today the…
8
11:02
You are in front of a black granite column at the centre of a circular park. It marks the hypocentre: the point over which, about five hundred metres up, the second atomic bomb in history exploded.
It was 9 August 1945, at 11:02 in the morning, three days after Hiroshima. The bomb, called Fat Man, was made of plutonium and was more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
Nagasaki was not the primary target. The bomber was heading for Kokura, in northern Kyushu. But that city was covered in cloud and smoke. After several passes, low on fuel, the crew turned towards the secondary target: Nagasaki.
…
9
The Clock That Stopped
You are at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. On entering you go down a spiral ramp, as if travelling back in time. The first thing you see is a wall clock stopped at 11:02.
Inside are objects recovered from the Urakami valley: melted and deformed glass bottles, a human hand with bones trapped in glass, uniforms, photographs taken the next day by an army photographer.
There is also a reproduction of a wall of Urakami Cathedral and a full-size model of the bomb. It is smaller than you imagine.
The last part of the museum deals with the present: the nuclear weapons that exist in the world today…
10
The Cathedral of the Hidden Christians
You are in front of Urakami Cathedral, a large red brick church with two bell towers. This is the Urakami valley: the village of the hidden Christians who approached the Oura priest in 1865.
After the persecution, when they returned from exile in 1873, the Christians of Urakami decided to build their own cathedral. It took them thirty years, with their own labour and savings. It was completed in 1925. It was the largest church in East Asia.
On 9 August 1945 the bomb exploded about five hundred metres from here. The cathedral collapsed. The two priests and the dozens of faithful who were maki…
11
The Doctor of the Bells
You are in front of the Nyokodo, a wooden hut of just two tatami mats, the size of a double bed. Dr Takashi Nagai lived his last years here.
Nagai was a radiologist at the Nagasaki medical school and a Catholic from Urakami. Before the bomb he was already ill with leukaemia from years of working with X-rays without protection. He had been given only a few years to live.
On 9 August he was at the hospital, about seven hundred metres from the hypocentre. Injured, he spent days tending other wounded people. When he went home, he found only ashes. Of his wife there remained a few bones and the r…
12
One Hand Towards the Sky, the Other Towards the World
You are in front of the Peace Statue, an enormous seated male figure almost ten metres tall, sculpted by Seibo Kitamura and unveiled in 1955. Look at the hands.
The right points upwards: towards the sky from which the bomb fell, the threat of nuclear weapons. The left is stretched out horizontally: peace. The eyes are closed, praying for the victims. One leg is folded in meditation; the other ready to rise and help.
This park was built on the site of a prison. Everyone inside, prisoners and guards, died. Among them were Chinese and Korean prisoners.
Every 9 August at 11:02 the whole city ob…
How long does the "Nagasaki: Japan's Window on the World and the Bomb That Fell Because of a Cloud" audio tour take?
It has about 20 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 10.71 km walking route (~2 h 40 min on foot). Plan roughly 3 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "An Island to Lock Up Europe" (coordinates 32.7435, 129.873). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Nagasaki and pick "Nagasaki: Japan's Window on the World and the Bomb That Fell Because of a Cloud". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
