I was reading this post over at Western Confucian when I learned that one of the targets for the atomic bombing of Nagasaki was no less potent symbol of Japanese militarism than St. Mary’s Cathedral, at the time the largest Christian church in the Far East.
Frankly, I’m not sure if that’s true — my understanding was the intended target was the Mitsubishi shipyard, but the bomb missed and hit near the church.
Regardless, one thing led to another, and I found this collection of photos of Japan’s old Catholic churches. Beautiful stuff. The photographer is famous for his series on Gunkanjima, or “Battleship Island.”
Going back to the A-bomb, another thing I learned today was that the primary target of “Fat Man” was not Nagasaki, but rather the city of Kokura. Fortunately for Kokura, it was cloudy on Aug 9, 1945. It was also the secondary target for “Little Boy,” but in another stroke of luck for the happy residents of Kokura, the skies above the primary target, Hiroshima, were clear on mission day.
I think that would officially make Kokura the luckiest city in the world.
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The often cited story regarding Nagasaki was that the skies were also clouded above that lovely city on that fateful day. The plane crew had almost given up releasing the bomb. Then, at the last minute, the clouds parted and they could spot the athletic ground of a school — and that is what ended up becoming Ground Zero.
I sort of doubt that St. Mary’s was a ‘target’ of the bomb an more than any of the myriad schools, orphanages, or private residents were. What it would have served as, however, is an important landmark for the bomber crews. After all, without GPS and other navigation aids that we’ve come to take for granted, bomber crews would have needed to at least partially rely upon sight for navigation. And what better way of knowing that you’re over your intended target (rather than having been blown off course) than by having a working knowledge of the most prominent landmarks — one of which in Nagasaki would have been a large Catholic cathedral.
Zonath is right, Urakami Cathedral was the sighting target.
According to the Wikipedia page on the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Fat Man “exploded 469 meters (1,540 ft) above the ground exactly halfway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in the south and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works (Torpedo Works) in the north.”
Lew Rockwell repeats the dubious claim that the only thing standing in the way of surrender was Truman’s insistence on unconditional surrender. In fact, Hirohito’s cabinet was divided on surrender, with 3 voting for it and 3 against with Hirohito holding the tie breaker. Those voting against surrender were worried that Hirohito was favoring surrender so they attempted a coup, but it was too little too late. The coup plotters were caught and executed.