Twin bells at Nagasaki’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral rang in unison for the first time in 80 years on Saturday, marking the moment the city was devastated by an American atomic bomb on 9 August 1945. The bells sounded at 11:02 am, the exact time the bomb was dropped, three days after the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
The redbrick cathedral, rebuilt in 1959 after being almost completely destroyed in the explosion, had only one bell recovered from the rubble, leaving the northern tower silent. A new bell, funded by US churchgoers, was recently installed and restored to the tower. The project was spearheaded by James Nolan, a sociology professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, whose grandfather worked on the Manhattan Project. Nolan raised $125,000 through lectures across the United States, primarily in churches.
During the ceremony, Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki urged the world to “stop armed conflicts immediately”, warning that a nuclear war crisis is “looming over each and every one of us”. About 74,000 people were killed in Nagasaki, on top of the 140,000 killed in Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, ending the Second World War.
Survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, 93, described the horror he witnessed as a teenager, recalling that even those not severely injured began to bleed from their gums and lose their hair, dying one after another. “Even though the war was over, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror,” he said. Another resident, Atsuko Higuchi, said the bell ringing “made her happy” that victims would be remembered, stressing that these are real events, not just history.
The chief priest of Urakami Cathedral, Kenichi Yamamura, said the bell’s restoration “shows the greatness of humanity” and serves as a message against violence. “We should not respond to violence with violence, but rather demonstrate through our way of living how senseless it is to take another’s life,” he said. Nearly 100 countries participated in this year’s commemorations, including Israel, though Russia was not invited due to its invasion of Ukraine.
