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what springs to mind when you think of nagasaki? the bomb. forget the fact that it was japan's only open port for hundreds of years after being founded by the portuguese, channeling ideas and goods into and out of the country, with large groups of ex-pats mixing with locals, booming science and culture, and history writing itself up and down its streets. all that was blasted away when the fat man plutonium bomb was tossed over the city by the americans 60 odd years ago.
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. but the problem is that it was blasted away second, and like many things in history, if you don't come first, you may as well have come last or not participated at all. this was the sad reality of nagasaki - a forgotten city - that g and i found. the epicentre of the bombing is marked by a rude monolith, surrounded by dirty grass leading to bushes filled with the shriek of stray cats fighting and fucking all day and night. horrible. proceed up past the eternal flame that won't be extinguished until all nuclear weapons have been destroyed - a wonderful thought, except that it had been allowed to go out already - then enter a park with statues of peace from a variety of eastern block countries hiding in over-grown trees (inscriptions on which you can only read if you're brave enough to risk having an eye taken out by a random angry cat's claw). and finally, the centrepiece of the nagasaki peace park - a blue statue of a man so malproportioned and ugly that you have to turn away just to compose yourself. it was as if no-one cared.
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at the time i didn't really mind, but g was furious. only after visiting hiroshima and seeing what was possible did i realise why: to have allowed that park to become so derelict was the ultimate disrespect for all those who died in the bombing, and to the hibakusha - those who were fortunate or unfortunate enough to have survived. shame on you, shame on me, shame on everyone.
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