26th February 2011 – Nagasaki

26th February 2011 – Nagasaki

Didn't know what to expect and knew nothing other than we were visiting the site of the 2nd atomic bomb.

The first country to insist on full immigration procedures and warned by the guest lecturer of pidgin English signage, squat toilets and people who could not speak English we wondered what we were letting ourselves in for as the 6 of us arrived on the quayside at 9 am; but what we found was absolutely the complete opposite – so there will be no photos of weird signs, etc.

Firstly, Japan is 145,885 square miles in size with a population at July 2008 of approximately 127,288,419. Little more than a sleepy fishing village when Japan sealed itself off from the rest of the world, Nagasaki became the one place where foreigners were allowed contact with the country.

We had discovered that Nagasaki was very 'doable' by oneself so the 6 of us jumped on a tram and with the help of a very nice young man we made our way initially to the Peace Memorial Park. This Park is filled with sculptures donated by countries from every corner of the earth but the centrepiece is a 30ft sculpture called simply Peace Statue. The statue's right hand points upwards depicting the threat of the atomic bomb and its left hand stretches horizontally, appealing for eternal world peace. One leg is extended, ready to assist humanity and the right leg,which is folded in a yoga-style pose, symbolises a quiet state of meditation. The eyes are closed to offer a prayer for the repose of the atomic bomb victims' souls. I would imagine that in a months' time when the trees and flowers are in full bloom the Park will look absolutely magnificent. In one corner of the Park there was a small shop. The Japanese love a madeira-type cake called Castellas and several different flavours were available for us to try.

At 11:02 am on the morning of the 9th August 1945 and just 3 days after Hiroshima, Major Charles Sweeney arrived over Nagasaki, not the intended target which was Kokura and obscured by haze and clouds, and dropped the atomic bomb. Nicknamed “Fatman” and with an explosive force of 21,000 tons of TNT, the bomb exploded approximately 1,600 ft above Nagasaki's industrial Urakami Valley. 40,000 Japanese died instantly and by the end of the year the dead numbered 75,000 and injured 74,000; this out of a population of just 240,000 people

As we approached the Atomic Bomb Hypocentre (Ground Zero) our mood darkened. It's hard to describe emotions as you stand at the site where such devastation took place. A simple monument with a black pillar marks the explosion's epicentre, while to the right is the remains of an archway of the Urakami Cathedral. In the immediate area there are more statues,etc. Rather subdued we made our way to the Atomic Bomb Museum which was 'interesting' – I struggled to find the right word here and I'm not going to describe some of the exhibits as they are not pleasant. Once again it shows Man's Inhumanity to Man and asks the question WHY?

An interesting aside here: Unless you search very hard, you will find no mention of Pearl Harbour (finally found a single picture of the shattered fleet – caption all in Japanese so don't know what it said) and we are led to believe that Pearl Harbour is virtually not mentioned in the school curriculum. Make of that what you want.

Finally in the need of some lightness we returned to the tram and went to a shopping centre! Here we left John & Faye and together with Dave & Chris we set off on a stroll heading vaguely back towards the ship. As we approached the harbour area we noticed people cooking fish/sushi over grilles. The sun had come out and it was very pleasantly warm so we decided to have a drink in one of the many cafes that lined the harbour. Our thirst quenched we continued our walk and were delighted to discover a park full of families enjoying the weather and rewarded with a view of the harbour and the Diamond Princess. We stopped to take photos and 3 high schoolgirls approached us giggling away; they were obviously keen to try out their English and wanted their photos taken with us! I wondered if it was a 'dare' by one of them to approach us, but whatever the reason was both Stephan & Dave had silly grins on their faces.

Another aside: Stephan is, of course, called 'Steven' in Hull, but in Manchester somehow he has become known as Stefan. Our table companions have, on occasion, even called him 'Stef' so I think I'm going to tease him with 'Stef'.

Just across from the ship there was a street which led to a Shopping Village which was, I suppose, a bit of a tourist trap. Most of the shops sold the usual touristy objects, but there were also food/ice cream shops and supermarket-type places. We had an ice-cream and had to laugh when Dave dropped his, picked it up and continued to eat it – the pavement was clean, he said. We were also fortunate to catch a bride disappearing into the courtyard of a museum. Chris and Stephan 'chased' after her and were rewarded with a posed picture which Chris promptly deleted to her utter dismay. The village led to Glover Garden, but we didn't go in. The gardens are named after Scots merchant Thomas Glover who was the founder of Mitsubishi!!

I hate to keep returning to the cost of the ship's excursions but we were actually booked on the tour we did ourselves. We cancelled the ship tour which would have cost us £50 each, although admittedly it did also include a scenic city drive, and did it ourselves for the huge sum of ......£1 each – the cost of the tram. Also, the ship tour was only 3 hours long whereas we spent probably 4 hours at the Atomic Bomb area alone. We have also cancelled our Dalian trip as we have discovered that it is also 'doable' on your own. Having said that, we are booked on a trip round Shanghai because we felt this was better with the ship. At the time of writing this on Sunday afternoon, however, it is quite foggy and the captain has said that there is a chance, albeit a very small chance, that we might not be able to dock in Shanghai tomorrow.

We returned to the ship about 5 pm and after a quick cup of tea we went to the cabin for a rest before returning on deck to watch the 'sailaway'. This was by far and wide the best sailaway we have had this trip. A high school orchestra was assembled on the dockside and played some beautiful music, which also drew local crowds. As we started to move the band struck up 'Time To Say Goodbye' which was actually quite emotional. This morning at breakfast one of the men confessed to a feeling of 'welling-up'. The crowd waved frantically and we waved back until they were just specks, however as we slowly sailed out of the harbour and past one of the many restaurants we could see them come out and wave and call to us. The ship has to pass under a bridge with only a one metre clearance so although it was now getting quite cold, lots of people stayed to watch. An optical illusion, it was only as we were actually under the bridge did we realise we were going to make it. Cars stopped on the bridge and people got out of the cars and waved and called goodbye.

From knowing nothing about Nagasaki apart from the obvious, we both agree that it is a super place with friendly people and we were so pleased to have been able to visit.

After dinner we went to watch one of the shows but were not impressed and left early.