32°45N 129°52E, pop (2000e) 455 000. Capital of Nagasaki prefecture, W Kyushu, Japan; visited by the Portuguese, 1545; centre for Jesuit missionaries from 16th-c; one of the power centres of the Tokugawa Shogunate; target for the second atomic bomb of World War 2 (9 Aug 1945), killing or wounding c.75 000, and destroying over a third of the city; airport; railway; university (1949); fishing, shipbuilding, engineering, metal products; stone bridges across the R Nakajima, including Spectacles Bridge (1634); Sofukuji pavilions; peace statue in Peace Park; Statue of the Martyrs (1962); Suwa Shrine festival (Oct).
Coordinates: 32°44′N 129°52′E
Nagasaki (Japanese: 長崎市, Nagasaki-shi listen (help·info), "long peninsula") is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. It became a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War and eventually was the second city on which an atomic bomb was dropped by the United States during World War II.
Nagasaki lies at the head of a long bay which forms the best natural harbor on the island of Kyūshū.
As of 2006 the population of the city is 455,156 and its area is 406.35 km² or about 156.89 mi² making it a fairly large city by Japanese standards in relation to its population level.
History
Medieval era
Founded before 1500, Nagasaki was originally secluded by harbors. The most notable among them was Omura Sumitada, who derived great profit from his conversion through an accompanying deal to receive a portion of the trade from Portuguese ships at a port they established in Nagasaki in 1571 with his assistance.
The little harbor village quickly grew into a diverse port city, and Portuguese products imported through Nagasaki (such as tobacco, bread, tempura, textiles and a Portuguese sponge-cake called castellas) were assimilated into popular Japanese culture.
Due to the instability during the Warring States period, Sumitada and Jesuit leader Alexandro Valignano conceived a plan to pass administrative control over to the Society of Jesus rather than see the Catholic city taken over by a non-Catholic daimyo who was quickly ascending to power in Kyūshū. Thus, for a brief period after 1580, the city of Nagasaki was a Jesuit colony, under their administrative and military control. However, the expulsion order went largely unenforced, and the fact remained that most of Nagasaki's population remained openly practicing Catholics.
In 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe was wrecked off the coast of Shikoku, and Hideyoshi learned from its pilot (so says the Jesuit account) that the Spanish Franciscans were the vanguard of an Iberian invasion of Japan. In response, Hideyoshi ordered the deaths of 26 Catholics in Nagasaki on Feb. 5 of that year.
In 1602, Augustinian missionaries also arrived in Japan, and when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in 1603, Catholicism was still grudgingly tolerated.
Catholicism's last gasp as an open religion, and the last major military action in Japan until the Meiji Restoration, was the Shimabara rebellion of 1637.
The Shimabara rebellion also convinced many policy-makers that foreign influences were more trouble than they were worth. The Portuguese, who had been previously living on a specially-constructed island-prison in Nagasaki harbor called Deshima, were expelled from the archipelago altogether, and the Dutch were moved from their base at Hirado into the trading island. In 1720 the ban on Dutch books was lifted, causing hundreds of scholars to flood into Nagasaki to study European science and art. Consequently, Nagasaki became a major center of rangaku, or "Dutch Learning". During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate governed the city, appointing a hatamoto, the Nagasaki bugyō, as its chief administrator.
In 1808, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Phaeton entered Nagasaki harbour in search of Dutch trading ships.
Modern era
U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry landed in 1853. Nagasaki became a free port in 1859 and modernization began in earnest in 1868.
With the Meiji Restoration, Nagasaki quickly began to assume some economic dominance.
On 9 August 1945, Nagasaki was the target of the world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 39,000 people were killed. According to statistics given at the Nagasaki Peace Park, the dead totalled 73,884, injured 74,909 and diseased 120,820.
The city was rebuilt after the war, albeit dramatically changed. Nagasaki remains first and foremost a port city, supporting a rich shipping industry and setting a strong example of perseverance and peace.
Nagasaki in Western music and song
Nagasaki is the title and subject of a 1928 song with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Mort Dixon.
Nagasaki is also the setting for Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly.
Sights
Oura Church (大浦天主堂) Urakami Cathedral (浦上天主堂) Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum Nagasaki Peace Park Dutch Slope Higashi-Yamate Jusanban Mansion Confucius Shrine Glover Garden (グラバー園) - Thomas Blake Glover Dejima Museum of History Kofuku-ji Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown in Japanese Mount Inasa Sofukuji/Sofuku Temple Suwa Shrine Nagasaki Prefectural Art MuseumEvents
The Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyūshū Ekiden, the world's longest relay race, begins in Nagasaki each November. Sara Udon Kasutera Karasumi Toruko rice (Turkish rice)
Universities in Nagasaki
Nagasaki University (national) Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies(Founded in December 1945, based upon the ideals of the YMCA, to promote peace through international communication)
Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science Kwassui Women's College Nagasaki Junshin University Siebold University of Nagasaki
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