After morning cycling and an afternoon ferry ride on
Tuesday, we biked up 500 feet and then descended the same amount to reach our
hotel in Nagasaki. Nagasaki was the site of the second US atomic bombing, which
was carried out on August 9, 1945 (3 days after Hiroshima was bombed). Approximately
70,000 people died as a direct result of the bombing, including acute deaths
from burns or falling debris, as well as deaths shortly thereafter from
radiation sickness and other illness. Much of the city was flattened within 1 kilometer
of the hypocenter, and there was heavy damage for several additional kilometers.
The city has several commemorative sites related to the
bombing, including a park at the hypocenter, and nearby Peace Statue, Atomic
Bomb Museum, and National Peace Memorial for the Atomic Bomb Victims. We
visited these during a rest day on Wednesday (the first of 4 rest days during our
bike trip). The pictures of severely burned people and wide swath of leveled
buildings were moving and sobering.
Nagasaki today is a vibrant city, with a population of
approximately 400,000. There are all the amenities and other features of a
modern city, including tall buildings, busy streets full of commercial activity, a Chinatown
(where we went for dinner to get a change from a week of Japanese food), and hookers
prowling the street near our hotel.
The city is built in and around numerous hills, with
buildings rising high into the hillsides. A popular attraction, which we took
advantage of, is the Ropeway, a cable car that goes up to an observatory and
restaurant atop one of the city's hills, the 1000-foot Mount Inasa.
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| Nagasaki atomic bomb hypocenter |
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| Peace Statue |
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| National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims |
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| Heading up the Ropeway to the observatory atop Mount Inasa |
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| She's enjoying the view as much as we did |
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| The entrance to Nagasaki's Chinatown |
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| A Night Scene in Nagasaki |
