Nagai Takashi's Urakami Holocaust and the Atomic Memory of Nagasaki

Abstract

On May 27, 1949, a physician named Nagai Takashi - a man suffering from radiation - induced leukemia as a result of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan - received an unexpected visit from the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito. Emperor Hirohito told Nagai that he had read Nagai's book. Nagai was in tears after the meeting as he was so moved and honored by the Emperor's presence. Three days later, Nagai welcomed an envoy from the Vatican, led by Cardinal Sir Norman Thomas Gilroy, carrying the relics of Saint Francis Xavier, whose mummified right arm Nagai kissed. And just one year earlier, on October 8, 1948, Nagai had received the famous American educator and political-activist, Helen Keller.3 Nagai Takashi earned the respect and gratitude of world leaders and common people throughout the world because he forever shaped public perception and understanding of the horrors of the Nagasaki atomic bomb. Even though Nagai Takashi passed away at the age of 43, he was still able to serve Japan as a convert to Roman Catholicism, a radiologist, a medical doctor, an atomic bomb survivor, a popular writer, and a nationally and internationally revered public figure. Dr. Nagai Takashi's charisma and unconventional interpretation of the atomic bomb left a profound impact on both Christian and non-Christian victims, and the rest of Japan's memory of the Nagasaki's atomic experience. However, as his religious theory gained popularity and dominated the discourse of the Nagasaki atomic history, it overshadowed the non-religious voices and presented an incomplete representation of Nagasaki's story to the rest of Japan and the world. In the end, the people of Nagaski were left with shattered narratives, preventing the construction of a coherent memory to identify with. The origin of Christianity in Japan dates back to 1549, when the Basque Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Kagoshima. Christianity flourished for about ninety years during a time labeled as the "Christian Century," and when a new port opened to Europeans in Nagasaki, it became one of the most significant Christian centers in Asia, earning the name "Little Rome." On August 15, 1549, Xavier commented that the Japanese were "the best who have as yet been discovered," and his Italian successor Alessandro Valignano believed Japan to be the most significant missionary ground of the East. Soon afterwards, many other missionaries from the Society of Jesus and other religious orders arrived in Nagasaki, converting the local people in trading ports including Amakusa and Kuchinotsu.