August 9th, 1945
The home of Christianity in the East was obliterated in seconds when an Atomic Bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
The city had a long and mystical relationship with the Catholic faith since 1549, since Saint Francis Xavier arrived at Kagoshima in Japan. The great Jesuit brought with him teachings of Christ and the Catholic faith.
The initial years of Japanese Christianity were a success and brought many baptisms and conversions. The Jesuits continued the success they experienced in other areas into the city of Nagasaki. So prolific were they in inspiring the Nagasaki people to follow Christ that the area became known as 'Little Rome'
The Japanese converted to Catholicism in droves, estimates state that 130,000 had converted by 1579
It was at that time the largest non European ruled Christian nation. The Jesuits, joined by Franciscans and Dominicans, won over locals
Domestic tensions would soon impinge upon this success
A ban on the Jesuits in 1587 arose from Japanese native Toyitomi Hideyoshi, hoping to stamp out the influence of Christianity and the Jesuits in particular, upon the Japanese. Incidents like the San Felipe, where it was alleged Jesuits were a precursor to invasion, only made the situation worse
In 1597, the Japanese church began the first of its many sufferings, when executions took place of the men who became the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki. Like Our Lord, these men were crucified and pierced with spears
In 1615, Christianity was completely prohibited from Japan and missionaries were ordered to leave. Many stayed, even though persecutions followed. On September 10th 1622, 56 Christians were burned alive or beheaded at Nagasaki
The following centuries were equally bleak for Christians in Japan
Many tried to live their faith in secret but were forced to trample on an image of Christ or Mary once a year to prove that they were not secret Christians
Despite their great suffering and lacking priests to say Mass, the underground Church of Nagasaki saw Christians keep their faith from generation to generation
In 1865, after Japan had been reopened to non natives, a French priest named Bernard Petitjean was approached by some of those remnant Christians
One of them whispered that she believed as he did and asked to see an image of the Virgin Mary. The priest was stunned to find that they'd baptised their children for centuries and kept the faith
Most of the hidden Christians of that area were from the Village of Urakami
In thanksgiving for the Lord's presence, they decided to build a Cathedral on the grounds of the land where they had been forced to trample on Our Lady's image. The Church of the Immaculate Conception that was built there was the biggest in East Asia
The Cathedral was completed in 1925, a sign of hope for Christians leading in to the future. By 1945, the majority of Japan's blossoming Catholic Church lived in Nagasaki
After 250 years of exile, Japanese Christians finally had reasons for optimism
August 9th 1945, as local Catholics prepared for the Feast of the Assumption, the pilots of the Boxscar were instructed to look for the spire of the Urakami Cathedral as they dropped the 'Fatman' bomb
Under orders from Harry Truman, a Freemason, the 2nd Atom Bomb in 3 days dropped. The destruction was unimaginable
Fulton Sheen would later associate the viciousness of the atomic bomb attacks with the moral disorder of the world afterwards, seeing it has having opened up a new system where ends justified the means in all circumstances and man was capable of using technology to inflict hell on Earth
The bombing in Nagasaki happened at 11.02 am as many attended Mass
In the death toll
-8,500 of the 12,000 Christians - 3 separate orders of nuns - An entire Catholic school
There were stories of nuns singing as they made their way through the streets after the blast, many dropping dead on the street as they did so
Christians now make up less than 1% of the Japanese population
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