On Saturday a minute of silence was respected in Nagasaki at the time of the atomic explosion that hit the Japanese city 80 years ago, while the restored bell of a church resonated for the first time from the strike.
On August 9, 1945 at 11:02 am, three days after Hiroshima, Nagasaki in turn suffered the horror of a nuclear bomb. About 74,000 people died in this port city of the southwest of the country, in addition to the 140,000 victims of Hiroshima.
“80 years have passed, and who could have imagined that the world would become like this? Please stop armed conflicts!” He urged the mayor of the city, Shiro Suzuki during the ceremony in front of an audience of representatives from more than 100 countries.
“The confrontations intensify in several places due to a vicious circle of confrontation and division. A crisis will probably threaten the survival of humanity, such as a nuclear war, looms on each of us who live on this planet,” added the councilor while the strong morning showers have stopped just before the minute of silence.
This great international participation, a record, is remarkably marked by the presence of Russia, which had not been invited since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Israel, whose ambassador had not been invited last year to protest against the conflict in Gaza, approving the boycott of the ceremony by the ambassadors of other G7 countries- was present.
Belly
This explosion “seems to be a very old era, but for the people who lived it, it must be as if it were yesterday. We should remember that these are real events,” said Atsuko Higuchi, a 50 -year -old Nagasaki resident, presents himself near the Peace Park.
Symbol of this commemoration, the bell of a cathedral destroyed by the atomic explosion and restored in the spring of this year by American Christians resonated for the first time in 80 years.
The imposing red brick cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which flanked for its two bell towers, is at the top of a hill in the city. It was rebuilt in 1959 after the original building was impressed by the explosion of the atomic pump a few hundred meters away. He had only found one of his two bells in the rubble.
For the main priest of the cathedral, Kenichi Yamamura, this restoration “shows the greatness of the human being, the proof that the people who belong to the camp who were injured another day want to redeem themselves.”
“It is not about forgetting the wounds of the past, but about recognizing and acting to repair, rebuild and, therefore, work together for peace,” said Mr. Yamamura to AFP.
The bishop also sees it as a message for the world, shaken by multiple conflicts and released in a crazy arms race.
“We must not respond to violence through violence, but to show for our way of life, pray, how silly it is to eliminate the life of others,” he said.
He was an American university professor, whose grandfather had participated as a doctor in the Manhattan project, in the origin of the atomic bombs of World War II, who carried out the restoration project.
James Nolan, professor of Sociology at Massachusetts, raised $ 125,000 (107,200 euros) in the United States. During the presentation of the bell in spring, “there were literally people crying,” recalls Mr. Nolan.
“Will to rebuild”
Many American Catholics who knew also ignored the painful history of the Christians of Nagasaki, who, converted to the 16th century by the first European missionaries and then persecuted by the Japanese shogunes, transmitted their faith by hiding for more than 250 years.
This story was told in the novel “Silence” of the Japanese Catholic writer Shusaku Endo, brought to the screen by Martin Scorsese in 2016. “We are talking about centuries of martyrdom, torture, clandestinity, mockery and persecution for his faith,” says Mr. Nolan.
American Catholics were inspired by “their desire to forgive and rebuild, and their commitment to prayer,” he adds.
These bombings brought the coup of grace in Japan, which he capitulated on August 15, 1945, ending World War II.
But historians continue to debate to discover if these bombings have really made it possible to save more lives precipitating the end of the conflict, facing the terrible experience of “Hibakusha” (the survivors of the bomb), victims of discrimination and exposed by the rest of their life with a greater risk of developing certain cancer.
Source: BFM TV
