Nagasaki

Nagasaki City Hall
Nagasaki-shi ; 長崎市
Geographical location in Japan
Region :	Kyushu
Prefecture :	Nagasaki
Coordinates :	32 ° 45 ' N , 129 ° 53' E Coordinates: 32 ° 45 '1 " N , 129 ° 52' 40" E
Basic data
Surface:	406.40 km²
Residents :	411,421 ; (October 1, 2019)
Population density :	1012 inhabitants per km²
Community key :	42201-1
Postal code area :	850-0002 - 852-8154
Symbols
Flag / coat of arms:
Tree :	Triadica sebifera
Flower :	Garden hydrangea
town hall
Address :	Nagasaki City Hall ; 2-22 Sakura-machi; Nagasaki -shi ; Nagasaki 850-8685
Website URL:	http://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/
Location of Nagasakis in Nagasaki Prefecture

Nagasaki ( Jap. 長崎市 , Nagasaki shi ) is The capital and largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture with 411,421 inhabitants (of October 1, 2019). Originally a small fishing village in the district Sonogi of Hizen Province , it was the arrival of the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century into a major port city. The city is located on the southwest coast of the third largest Japanese island of Kyushu .

Nagasaki gained worldwide fame as a target of the second armed nuclear weapon deployment on August 9, 1945 .

geography

Geographical location

Nagasaki stretches across the southern half of the Nishisonogi Peninsula in the north and the Nagasaki Peninsula in the south. In the west is the Sumō-nada marine area , the Ōmura Bay in the northeast and the Amakusa-nada marine region in the south . These belong to the East China Sea .

climate

Monthly average temperatures and rainfall for Nagasaki

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	9.9	10.6	14.1	19.4	23.1	25.8	29.7	31.3	28.1	23.3	17.9	12.5	O	20.5
Min. Temperature (° C)	3.1	3.7	6.3	11.3	15.4	19.3	24.0	24.7	21.1	15.3	10.1	5.3	O	13.3

Precipitation ( mm )	78	86	116	174	193	332	334	187	190	104	85	66	Σ	1,945

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	3.2	3.8	5.0	5.4	5.9	4.8	6.0	7.2	5.7	5.7	4.6	3.4	O	5.1

Water temperature (° C)	17th	17th	17th	18th	20th	23	26th	27	26th	23	21st	19th	O	21.2

Humidity ( % )	68	67	67	71	73	80	81	77	75	69	69	69	O	72.2

Source: wetterkontor.de

history

Early era

The city was founded before 1500 and was originally an insignificant remote fishing village, whose development only experienced an upswing after the arrival of the Europeans around the middle of the 16th century . In 1543 a ship from Malacca landed on the coast of the southern island of Tanegashima. The Portuguese merchants on board presented some rifles to thank the residents for their support. This is considered to be the first direct contact between Japanese and Europeans and the beginning of the history of firearms in Japan. Six years later, the cofounder of the Society of Jesus and missionary Francisco Xavier Kagoshima in the south of Kyushu and, during his two-year stay, laid the foundations for the Jesuit missionary work as well as a permanent trade with Portuguese traders from Macau . Since good relations with the missionaries involved taking part in the highly lucrative long-distance trade, some regional rulers ( daimyo ) were baptized. The most important of them was Ōmura Sumitada , who made great profits from his conversion . After first attempts with smaller ports such as Kuchinotsu, in 1571 he decided that Nagasaki, which was sheltered from the wind in a deeply cut bay, was the port of call for the Portuguese carracks .

The small settlement grew rapidly; The names of many districts still show the origin of the resettlers who arrived from all parts of Kyushu. A range of Portuguese products imported via Nagasaki (e.g. bread , tempura (fried vegetables), buttons, card games, certain fabrics and garments, as well as products from Portuguese overseas branches ( tobacco and quinine bark from America, fruit trees from Southeast Asia)) found their way into everyday Japanese culture. The Portuguese also carried goods from the Chinese Empire with them. At the same time, the Jesuits founded churches and nursing homes in Nagasaki and took over the administration of the settlement.

Nagasaki's prosperity was in danger for the first time in 1587. After long armed conflicts for supremacy over the archipelago, Oda Nobunaga had brought the regional princes under his control, but died in 1582. Toyotomi Hideyoshi , one of his followers, took power as the new Kampaku and pushed the unification of the empire forward. The uncontrolled, lucrative long-distance trade of the southern regional rulers and the dominance of the Portuguese in silk imports, as well as the reluctance of the Christian missionaries to tolerate coexistence with the other religions in the country, bothers. In order to contain the strong Christian influence in southern Japan, Hideyoshi ordered the expulsion of all missionaries. The Jesuits lost the administrative control over Nagasaki that had been given to them by the Prince of Ōmura Sumitada, which now went to the central government. Other ad hoc edicts followed. Some measures were only enforced locally and for a short time, but over the years the severity of the persecution of Japanese and foreign Christians increased. In 1597 Hideyoshi had 26 Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries as well as Japanese who had converted to Christianity between the ages of twelve and 64 years from central Japan through the western parts of the country to Nagasaki and crucified there as a deterrent. The Portuguese traders living in the city remained unmolested for the time being because of their economic importance.

The era of isolation and persecution of Christians in Japan

Crucifixion of 26 Christians on February 5, 1597 in Nagasaki (painting, 1862)

Dejima around the middle of the 17th century (drawing, 1669)

When Tokugawa Ieyasu took power as Shogun almost 20 years later after Hideyoshi's death and the decisive Battle of Sekigahara , the situation of Nagasaki hardly improved. In 1614 Christianity was finally banned. All missionaries were deported, as were those regional princes who did not want to renounce Christianity. A brutal persecution followed, with thousands killed and tortured in Nagasaki and other parts of Japan. The so-called Shimabara uprising , which flared up in the Shimabara region, Amakusa in 1637, was initially directed against the extreme tax burdens that the regional ruler had imposed on his subjects. Only in the course of the fighting against the growing superiority of troops loyal to the government did the conflict take on religious features. After the laborious crackdown, the shogunate decided to expel all Iberians, including the last merchants in Nagasaki. Japan's “Christian Century” ended. Some Japanese clung to Christianity in secret, and some of these families ( Kakure Kirishitan ) survived the persecution that followed until the country reopened in the 19th century.

The Dutch had a trading post in Hirado since 1609 with the permission of Tokugawa Ieyasu . Since they were in competition with the Portuguese, showed no interest in missionary activities and also complied with the demands of the central government to bombard the Hara fortress with their ship cannons during the Shimabara uprising, they were exempted from the expulsion of the Europeans in 1639. However, in 1640/41 their branch was relocated from Hirado to Nagasaki in order to prevent the economic collapse threatened by the absence of the Portuguese ships and at the same time to better control their activities. Until 1855, Japan's contacts with the West ran through this small trading post ( Dejima ).

From then on, Chinese merchants were also only allowed to land in Nagasaki. From 1688 their freedom of movement was similar to that of the Dutch restricted to a settlement enclosed by a wall (Tōjin yashiki, "Chinese property"). As a result, the city flourished again economically and at the same time became the fulcrum in communicating western science and technology to Japan. As early as the second half of the 17th century, the thirsty Japanese moved to Nagasaki to get information and materials from the interpreters or others who had access to the Dejima factory. With the increased promotion of the "Holland customer" ( Rangaku ) by the Shogun Yoshimune, the study visit to Nagasaki ( Nagasaki-yūgaku ) experienced a further boom in the 18th century. The houses of learned interpreting families such as Motoki or Yoshio, with their rich collections of books and objects, have become the focal point for countless visitors and students from all over the country.

19th century to World War II

After the US - Commodore Matthew Perry landed in 1853 in Japan and the shogunate crumbled shortly thereafter, opened its doors Japan again. Nagasaki became a contract port in 1859 . Europeans settled in Nagasaki, and on March 17, 1865, the French Catholic priest Bernard Petitjean met around 15 Christians living in Urakami in the newly established Kircheura Church , who had previously practiced their Christianity underground. This event is known as the Revival of Christianity in Japan.

In Nagasaki, as throughout the country, extensive modernization began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. From the previous Nagasaki shogunate administration , the [city] prefecture (-fu) Nagasaki emerged in 1868 , which was converted into a normal prefecture (-ken) in 1869 and was soon expanded to include surrounding principalities. The modern city of Nagasaki written in 1878, first as a city district Nagasaki (Nagasaki ku ) , who was then 87 chō included. From this emerged today's Nagasaki-shi with 54,502 inhabitants at the time during the modernization of the municipal regulations under Prussian influence . Nagasaki quickly gained economic dominance , particularly in the shipbuilding field. Until the Second World War , the importance of local industry as a shipyard center for the Imperial Navy grew .

Atomic bombs dropped on August 9, 1945

→ Main article: Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

The shipbuilding industry that gave Nagasaki economic importance made the city a target for the Americans in World War II : on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m., an American B-29 bomber , the Bockscar , dropped the nuclear weapon called Fat Man over the Mitsubishi weapons factory when a cloud gap just opened. The original destination was the shipyards. Although the bomb missed its planned target point by more than 2 km because the drop had to be radar-controlled due to heavy cloud cover, it leveled almost half of the city and killed around 36,000 of the 200,000 inhabitants. (The Committee for the Preservation of Atomic Bomb Artifacts estimated that in December 1945, almost four months after the drop, 74,000 people were killed and that many injured again). Of 52,000 buildings, 19,400 were destroyed. Many people died as a result of radiation sickness (estimates: 1946 ≈ 75,000, 1950 ≈ 140,000). The survivors are known as Hibakusha . Fat Man (20 kt TNT equivalent) was the second atomic bomb to explode on Japan after the “ Little Boy ” dropped on Hiroshima .

Fat man on a dolly

Crew of the buckscar

Mushroom cloud after Fat Man explosion

Aerial view of Nagasaki before and after the explosion

From the reconstruction until today

After the war, the city was rebuilt, but because of the great destruction it was completely different from what it looked like before the war. New temples and churches were built - Christianity even found significant popularity after the war, and Nagasaki still has the highest Christian population of any major Japanese city. Some rubble was left as a memorial , such as B. the one-legged torii and a stone arch near the ground zero . New buildings were also erected as memorials, such as B. the atomic bomb museum .

Culture and sights

Attractions

Peace Park ( 平和公園 , heiwa kōen )

Cenotaph in the hypocenter

National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

Dejima ( 出島 )

Fukusai-ji ( 福済寺 ), a Zen temple also known as the Nagasaki Universal Temple . The building is shaped like a turtle, with a statue of the goddess Kannon on the 18 meter high back . The original building was completed in 1628 and destroyed by fire when the atom bomb was dropped. The current building was completed in 1979. The temple bell rings daily at 11:02 a.m., the time of the atomic bomb explosion.

Sōfuku-ji ( 崇福寺 )

Double arch bridge ( 眼鏡橋 , megane-bashi )

Chinatown

Glover Garden ( グラバー園 , gurabā-en )

Huis Ten Bosch ( ハウステンボス ), amusement park with a Netherlands theme

Kōfuku-ji ( 興福寺 )

Monument of the 26 Martyrs ( 日本二十六聖人記念館 , Nihonjin-nijūroku-shōnin-kinenkan )

Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan ( 大浦天主堂 , Ōura Tenshudō )

Suwa Shrine ( 鎮西大社諏訪神社 , Chinzei-Taisha-Suwa-jinja )

Urakami Cathedral ( 浦上天主堂 , Urakami Tenshudō )

Statue of Peace in Peace Park
National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims
Cenotaph in the hypocenter
Fukusai temple
Buddha Hall ( Daiyū Hōden ) of the Sōfuku Temple
Main hall of the Kofuku temple
Suwa shrine
William Alt's home in Glover Garden
Urakami Cathedral
Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan (Ōura Church)
Monument to the 26 Christian Martyrs

Museums

Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum
Memorial to the 26 Christian Martyrs
Siebold Memorial Museum
Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum
Endo Shusaku Literary Museum

Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
Memorial to the 26 Christian Martyrs
Siebold Memorial Museum
Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum
Endo Shusaku Literary Museum

politics

Fractions in the city parliament
(as of May 13, 2015)

A total of 40 seats

Shimin Club ("Citizen's Club "; Minshintō , SDP ): 11

Meisei Club ( 明政クラブ ): 11

Kōmeitō : 6

Sōsei Jimin ( 創生自民 ): 5

KPY : 3

LDP : 2

Team 2020 : 2

Nagasaki City Hall (Nagasaki-shiyakusho)

Mayor of Nagasaki (Nagasaki-shichō) has been Tomihisa Taue since April 2007 , who was last re-elected for a third term in the unified elections in April 2015 due to the lack of an opposing candidate. The city parliament of Nagasaki (Nagasaki-shigikai) was also re-elected in the unified elections in 2015.

The then main building of the prefecture administration of Nagasaki ( Nagasaki-kenchō , contemporary spelling 長崎縣廳 ) in the early 20th century

The city of Nagasaki forms a 14 -seat constituency for the 46-member prefectural parliament of Nagasaki (Nagasaki-kengikai) , which is also elected in a uniform election cycle . Of the MPs from the city (as of October 2015) four each belong to the LDP faction and the DPJ - SDP -supported faction "Reform 21", the Kōmeitō provides two MPs, the CPJ one, most of the other MPs constitute one Man factions.

In elections to the lower house of the national parliament , the city extends into the constituencies Nagasaki 1 (lies entirely in the city of Nagasaki) and Nagasaki 2 (only includes the incorporated cities of Kinkai and Sotome and otherwise especially Isahaya and other cities in the prefecture). Constituency 1 is currently represented by the liberal democrat Tsutomu Tomioka , who prevailed against the long-time incumbent Yoshiaki Takaki (Democrat) in 2012 and 2014 , but who won a seat in the proportional representation in Kyūshū with relatively narrow constituency defeats in both elections. After the electoral reform of the 1990s, constituency 2 was held by Fumio Kyūma for a long time, but was defeated by the Democrat Eriko Fukuda in the 2009 LDP landslide defeat; since 2012, the constituency with Kanji Katō has been in LDP hands again.

Personalities

Neighboring cities and communities

Town twinning

Japan Hiroshima , Japan
China People's Republic Fuzhou , People's Republic of China , since 1980
Bulgaria Blagoevgrad , Bulgaria
Brazil Santos , Brazil , since 1972
United States Saint Paul , USA , since 1955
Netherlands Middelburg , Netherlands , since 1978
Portugal Porto , Portugal , since 1978
France Vaux-sur-Aure , France , since 2005. Sotome partner since 1978

literature

(in chronological order)

Nagasaki . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 14, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1908, pp. 373–374 .
Takashi Nagai: We were there in Nagasaki. Translated from the Japanese by Wolfgang Metzner. Metzner, Frankfurt am Main 1951, DNB 453531008 .
Paul Takashi Nagai : The Bells of Nagasaki. History of the atomic bomb. Rex-Verlag, Munich 1955, DNB 453530974 .
Gerd Greune , Klaus Mannhardt (eds.): Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Images, texts, documents. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-7609-0636-2 .
Angelika Jaeger (translator): Life after the atomic bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945–1985. Committee to Document the Damage from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1988, ISBN 3-593-33852-1 .
Marianne Mehling (Ed.): Knaurs Culture Guide in Color - Japan. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-426-26250-9 , pp. 202-208.
Isa Ducke, Natascha Thoma: Japan. 14th, completely revised and redesigned edition. Baedeker, Ostfildern 2018, ISBN 978-3-8297-4642-7 , pp. 294-302.