On July 26 2025, Naoko gave a talk in Nagasaki, which features prominently in her new book. The venue was appropriately, Nyoko-do, the former home of Dr. Takashi Nagai. He was a renowned Catholic doctor who looked after the severely injured after the August 9 1945 atomic bombing.
Dr. Nagai gave a speech in November 1945 at a memorial mass held in the ruins of Urakami Cathedral to commemorate the people killed in the atomic blast. He told the survivors that the blast could have been ‘God’s Providence’.
The atomic bomb detonated above Asia’s largest Cathedral and destroyed the Japanese Catholic community. The Cathedral had been built as a symbol of victory over 20o years’ persecution against them. The survivors were struggling to understand why their community was targeted by the bombing. Dr. Nagai’s theory was criticized years later, but at the time, many Catholics survivors believed it and kept their sufferings to themselves–they did not talk about their predicaments for 35 years.
In truth, the Catholic community was not targeted by the Americans. It was pure coincidence that the bomb exploded over the Cathedral after a series of errors and unexpected circumstances.
Dr. Nagai also wrote the bestseller book ’The Bells of Nagasaki’ .
The new Japanese edition was being sold in a bookstore in Nagasaki
Dr. Nagai was suffering from leukemia, after being exposed to radiation as a radiologist, and the atomic bombing made his condition worse. His wife Midori was killed instantly in the bombing but his children survived because they had been evacuated from Nagasaki. Dr. Nagai lived in Nyoko-do with his children until he died in 1951 aged 43. Nyoko-do is now a ‘Nagai Takashi memorial museum’.
Dr. Nagai writing an essay in his bed at Nyoko-do Dr. Nagai with his children, Makoto left, and Kayano right.
Dr. Nagai and his children at Nyoko-do
The photos above were taken at the Nagai Takashi Museum
