When the Sun Turned Black

Insight Scoop ^ | December 5, 2009 | Paul Glynn, S.M.

[NYer]

by Paul Glynn, S.M.

On August 9, 1945, an American B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing tens of thousands of people in the blink of an eye, while fatally injuring and poisoning thousands more. Among the survivors was Takashi Nagai, a pioneer in radiology research and a convert to the Catholic Faith. Living in the rubble of the ruined city and suffering from leukemia caused by over-exposure to radiation, Nagai lived out the remainder of his remarkable life by bringing physical and spiritual healing to his war-weary people.

A Song for Nagasaki tells the moving story of this extraordinary man, beginning with his boyhood and the heroic tales and stoic virtues of his family's Shinto religion. It reveals the inspiring story of Nagai's remarkable spiritual journey from Shintoism to atheism to Catholicism. Mixed with interesting details about Japanese history and culture, the biography traces Nagai's spiritual quest as he studied medicine at Nagasaki University, served as a medic with the Japanese army during its occupation of Manchuria, and returned to Nagasaki to dedicate himself to the science of radiology. The historic Catholic district of the city, where Nagai became a Catholic and began a family, was ground zero for the atomic bomb.

After the bomb disaster that killed thousands, including Nagai's beloved wife, Nagai, then Dean of Radiology at Nagasaki University, threw himself into service to the countless victims of the bomb explosion, even though it meant deadly exposure to the radiation which eventually would cause his own death. While dying, he also wrote powerful books that became best-sellers in Japan. These included The Bells of Nagasaki, which resonated deeply with the Japanese people in their great suffering as it explores the Christian message of love and forgiveness. Nagai became a highly revered man and is considered a saint by many Japanese people. Illustrated

"Christians and non-Christians alike were deeply moved by Nagai's faith in Christ that made him like Job of the Scriptures: in the midst of the nuclear wilderness he kept his heart in tranquility and peace, neither bearing resentment against any man nor cursing God." -- Shusaku Endo, from the Foreword

• Also available in E-Book format.

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Fr. Paul Glynn, S.M., a Marist Missionary priest from Australia, is the author of several books including the best-sellers The Healing Fire of Christ: Reflections on Modern Miracles and The Smile of the Ragpicker.

[NYer]

A good book to add to your shopping list.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It was a horrible thing but conventional bombing and an invasion would have resulted in the horrible deaths of millions more.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Dropping the bomb was a mercy for hundreds of thousands more casualties that would've surely come later in the invasion of Japan. In any event, the Japanese barbarically slaughtered far more people than both bombs in just seven weeks during the Rape of Nanking. Oddly enough, the Japanese are loath to take credit for the horrors they perpetrated all through Asia that made the Nazis look positively compassionate in comparison.

In every way, dropping the bomb was the best and most humane action of the entire war.

[Joe 6-pack]

These accounts never seem to mention how many of these people cheered when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

[Vermont Lt]

After the bomb disaster

I don't think I would characterize it as a disaster. Seems like it worked the way it was supposed to, and with the intended results. The disaster was allowing the Japanese government to rule the country and take it down the wrong road for most of the first half of the twentieth century.

[skeeter]

War has always been hell for soldiers; in the twentieth century it became hell for everyone.

Food for thought when contemplating an unprovoked attack.

[ConorMacNessa]

The A-bomb over Hiroshima was not enough to make the Japanese surrender. By virtue of the Nagasaki bomb they finally gave up. My father was spared from fighting in a bloody campaign that could have resulted in his death before I was conceived. I am grateful for both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, which were justifiable instruments of war. They saved hundreds of thousands of American lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan.

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[Ciexyz]

My Dad, now deceased, was a WW II veteran and firmly believed that the dropping of those bombs saved many lives on both sides that would have been lost during an invasion of Japan. That said, we can also feel compassion for our former enemies and sympathize with their suffering.

[theBuckwheat]

My own father, who was just completing his university coursework, was sucked up into the military personnel processing machinery and put on the fast track to assist in the invasion of the Japanese homeland. There was some doubt that the United States had enough men to successfully invade and to absorb the expected losses. Such an invasion would have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands on both sides.

I have concluded that when a socialist brings us tearful accounts of the victims, he is using truth to advance some other falsehood-based agenda. In this case, we are being tempted to have more compassion on the Japanese people than on those responding to their war-making.

Happily, my father spent his time in the Navy repairing radios and radar equipment of US forces occupying remote islands in the Pacific.

May humanity not suffer from nuclear weapons ever again. However, today’s news brings a report that Iran is talking about building almost two dozen processing sites. They appear hell-bent on initiating nuclear war, and the sooner we deal with it, the lower the cost will be for the world to remove this threat.

see Drudgereport for the story.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Unit 731.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

War always was hell for everyone.

Ask the citizens of Troy.

[skeeter]

Some say it was the declaration of war by the USSR which really motivated the Japanese to surrender. They knew we could be dealt with.

[elcid1970]

My Dad had just finished his role as an infantry officer in the defeat of Germany and his unit was being refitted for the expected invasion of the Japan home islands when the news came of the Japanese surrender after Nagasaki.

You’re right, it took not one but two atomic bombings to convince the Japs that further resistance was futile.

Dad was stationed in Japan, 1956-58. I was an eight year old kid who played baseball with Japanese kids and had no idea of the Pacific War until years later. Up till then, I thought World War Two was fought only with the Germans!

[A.A. Cunningham]

[alarm rider]

I have little sympathy for the Japanese of that period. Many of our fathers, mine included (a Army Air Corps pilot), would have told you that the Japanese were savages with POWs and civilians of countries they invaded.

An invasion of Japan would have cost many lives on both sides.

Dropping the bombs helped save Japanese lives as well as American, British, Australian and others.

Total wars will always be fought, and it's always messy. Only the dead have seen the end of war.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I lean towards the view that dropping the bombs may have done what we wanted them to do, but at the same time, it is only right and fitting that we remember in every conflict, in every war, the casualties have real faces, feel real pain, and are God’s children too.

These weapons are so awful that perhaps remembering people’s stories will help us realize why it is important not to let crazy governments have access to them.

[A.A. Cunningham]

By virtue of the Nagasaki bomb they finally gave up.

Correction: By virtue of the Nagasaki bomb they eventually gave up six days later but not before the largest air raid of WWII was executed on the night of 14 August 1945. Despite the devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tojo and many others wanted to continue to fight.

[lowtaxsmallgov]

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would Japan think we “could be dealt with” after we just evaporated two of their cities?

It was the other way around - USSR waited until Japan was toast before declaring war on them. Such courage.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Some say it was the declaration of war by the USSR which really motivated the Japanese to surrender.***

I heard this back in the 1970s, vladimer Posner on Radio Moscow, short wave broadcast. Consider the source.