NAGASAKI -- The Urakami Christian Museum in Heiwamachi, Nagasaki City, in Nagasaki Prefecture is currently displaying column ornaments and pieces of a wall from the Urakami Cathedral that was destroyed by the atomic bomb. This special exhibition, which marks the 75th year since the bomb was dropped in Nagasaki, will continue through Aug. 31.
The exhibition is displaying about 150 pieces of rubble and shrapnel that Takeo Watanabe, a defunct University of Tokyo professor who was a part of a group investing the bombing, collected from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in October 1945. The museum is also displaying 14 shishi heads -- guardian lions that are usually found at shrines -- that decorated the archway of the entrance of the cathedral that were previously housed at the research museum at the university.
At another venue, a book based on Watanabe's research notes is also being sold at a bookstore for 2,400 yen excluding tax.
The book was written by Watanabe's student, professor emeritus Tokuhei Tagai, 77, and it was published in May.
Tagai also published another book relating to Hiroshima and Nagasaki that was published in 2007 and includes many full-color photographs of shishi in which you can see their facial expressions carved into the stone. In the book, the specimens are examined to recalculate the radiation released by the atomic bomb and to find the truth from the stones.
"Even though people's memories of the atomic bomb begin to fade after 75 years, the events of that day are carved into the stone and are as vivid as ever. I want people to listen to what the stones have to tell us," Chiyoko Iwanami, director of the Urakami Christian Museum said.
The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, and admission is free of charge. For more information, call 095-807-5646.
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