By Christine Lim
KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) -- With Japan reopening its doors for tourism, Nagasaki, located on the west coast of Kyushu, could beckon and charm you again with its unique historical and cultural connection with Western civilisation and its intertwined relationship with China and other Asian countries, including Malaysia.
While it was known as a tragic place devastated by the ravages of the atomic bomb during World War II in 1945, it has another intriguing side to its history as a melting pot that attracted people from different nationalities and religions to pursue enduring dreams and friendship for many centuries ago.
Nagasaki was a lively place of people that came from Portugal, Netherlands, China and other nations, with the bustling port of Nagasaki, opened to foreigners in the 16th century.
BECKONING EXUBERANT WANDERERS
Today, Nagasaki is a popular tourist destination as a historical place of Japan’s industrialisation, with the influence of Western technology and as a powerful symbol of peace among many nations in the relentless pursuit to end the destructive forces of war.
After closing its borders to foreign visitors for almost two and a half years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan now is welcoming foreign visitors again as a free place where people could come to discover Japan and its unique history and culture.
From Oct 11, visa-free vaccinated tourists can enter Japan without the need to sign up for a package tour and the cap on the daily number of arrivals set at 50,000 previously, would be scrapped.
This comes at a time, when the yen is at the record low of nearly 24-year, boosting the purchasing power of tourists and the tourism industry that was reeling from the dire impact of the pandemic due to closures and dismal financial situations.
Before the pandemic struck in 2019, this writer made a trip to Nagasaki as a solitary and exuberant wanderer and discovered the scenic picturesque vibrant city of Nagasaki with high hills and long, winding pathways and a harbour.
It is easy to get around Nagasaki city to visit major tourist destinations by hopping into the bright and colourful streetcar with its attractive vintage décor, along with the efficient, frequent and comprehensive line network.
JAPAN’S GOLDEN WINDOW TO THE WORLD
At Dejima, a national historic site, comprising museums, restored Dutch warehouses, jetties and residences from the Edo period from the 17th century, you can discover Nagasaki as Japan’s window to foreign culture and technology in the ancient world with the astounding array of goods exhibited.
Besides the many relics exhibited at the historical man-made island and port, there were also paintings on the walls that described the merchandise exported to Dejima through the Dutch ships that sailed there, comprising tin products from Malaysia, porcelain from China, sugar and spices from Indonesia and cotton fabric from India.
Tin, an important commodity from Malaysia, was mainly used to make coins during medieval times.
Japanese products such as camphor from the Kagoshima prefecture, soy sauce and Japanese artworks were also loaded on Dutch ships from Dejima to be exported to other countries.
In this way, Dejima was viewed as an important hub for the modernisation of Japan and as a gateway of cultural linkages with China and the other Asian countries, mainly with the diplomatic ties forged between Japan and Holland up to the late19th century.
You can also explore the golden era of Nagasaki’s history as a quintessence of the East and West exchange of communication, by visiting the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Nagasaki branch museum.
The former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building in Nagasaki city, which was constructed in 1904, with its imposing ornate classical Greece Corinthian columns, has been turned into a museum that tells the story of the grandeur of Nagasaki’s past as the only international trading port in Japan during the Sakoku period of isolation from 1603 to 1868, where foreigners were banned from entering the country except for the Dutch nationals.
The museum also displayed memorabilia such as pictures, video presentations and artefacts of the people that lived during that era that shaped Japan’s modernisation and bridge with other nations.
THE ENDURING FRIENDSHIP OF SUN YAT SEN & UMEYA SHOKICHI
There was a dedicated space in the museum that portrayed the story of Umeya Shokichi, the trailblazer in the Japanese movie industry born in Nagasaki and his passionate connection with China and Sun Yat Sen, a nationalist republic leader, hailed as the father of modern China.
Umeya, with his movie empire in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, was known as the man who supported Sun and the Chinese community in the Xinhai uprising revolution to topple the Manchurian Qing dynasty's rule in China from 1911 to 1912.
Sun who first met Umeya in Hong Kong, went to Nagasaki during the revolution and gained support from Umeya and other Japanese as well as the Chinese community in Japan, which played a significant role in Nagasaki’s trade and industrial modernisation.
Nagasaki 150 years ago, was indeed a thriving place where ships plied and the exchange of information and trade prospered with the laying of submarine cables between Shanghai, China to Nagasaki.
The many western-styled buildings in Nagasaki, dated from the 19th century bore testament to the many European companies and residences that had introduced Japan to early Western technologies, such as submarine telegraph cables, shipping, stream trawling and coal mining.
Among them was Thomas Glover, a merchant from Scotland, who came to Nagasaki in 1859 and was pivotal in transforming samurai into engineers and making Japan into a leading modern industrial powerhouse in shipbuilding, steel and coal industries.
While Nagasaki was the frontier of western technology with the first steam engine and train as well as Japan’s first western-shipbuilding facility, it has a greater empowering impact on the history of mankind and world peace with the destructive force of the atomic bombing during the Second World War that killed an estimated 74,000 people.
The initial target of the atomic bombing was the city of Kokura, on the island of Kyushu but in a twisted turn of events and poor visibility due to thick clouds, the bomb was diverted to Nagasaki instead.
PLACE OF PEACE, HOPE & MARTYRDOM
In a deep emotionally moving and serene place is the Nagasaki Peace Park, located near the epicentre of the deadly explosion that describes the horrors of the atomic bombing and the hope of the people in many nations.
Monuments and renowned sculptures from different countries dedicated to the pursuit of life and peace can be found in the Nagasaki peace park.
The most magnificent is the iconic 10-metre tall peace sculpture of a man with a solemn face created by renowned Japanese sculptor, Seibo Kitamura.
With the right hand raised to the sky, pointing to the deadly atomic bomb, the left hand stretched out towards peace and eyes closed in prayers for the repose of the souls, the sculpture made an imposing view beside the Fountain of Peace with water sprung up with the shape of the wings of doves.
There are also sculptures donated by other countries, namely the “Monument of Peoples Friendship” from Germany, symbolising the friendship of peoples from different nations, and the “Joy of Life” donated by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, depicting a joyful mother carrying up her baby as well as the “Maiden of Peace” donated from China, showing the statue of a smiling young girl spreading her hands in an expression of love.
Not far off, are the remnants of the walls of the Urakami Cathedral church, which was the biggest Catholic church in East Asia at that time, which bore testament to the zealous faith among devoted believers as the force of the atomic bomb destroyed the cathedral and killed thousands of devout worshippers on that fateful day.
The church was built in 1895 in the district of Urakami, in Nagasaki city, where many devout believers fervently maintained their faith despite being persecuted during the ban on Christianity in the Edo period of Japan from the early 17th century until 1873, when the ban was lifted.
Nagasaki, which was dubbed the “Little Rome” of Japan, was a place the Christianity faith flourished since 1549 led by St Francis Xavier, a Spanish missionary, who came to Japan after meeting a Japanese exile in Malacca, who encouraged him to expand his missionary work from one of the world’s shipping and trade hub in the Malay peninsula to Japan.
Xavier first arrived in Kagoshima, in the Kyushu region, and won many converts in Kagoshima.
His evangelical teachings had also spread to other locations near Kagoshima, namely in Hirado and Nagasaki.
Nagasaki had also become a place of bloodshed and martyrdom, with the execution of 26 Christian saints that stirred up the attention of the international community.
Mounting pressure from the international community, particularly from the western powers for the opening of Japan to the western world, led to the religious and social liberation for the Christians and foreigners in 1873, during the Meiji era with a new paradigm shift from an isolated feudal state to a modernised nation.
HAUNTED ISLAND
You can step into one of the most hauntingly intriguing places in Japan that depicted the legacy of the Meiji era of Japan’s industrialisation, by taking a cruise ship from Nagasaki port to the deserted Hashima island.
The island that is also known as Gunkanjima or battleship in Japanese is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site and was once a coal mining area with the largest population density in the world during its heydays when the island started its mining facility around the late 1890s.
Left to decay after it was shut down in 1974 when coal depleted, the hauntingly creepy external scenes of the island were featured in the 2012 James Bond movie“ Skyfall” as most shots of the island were taken in the studio.
The Japanese officials prohibit visitors from entering the island into the degenerating buildings and structures that were once inhabited by coal miners, mainly labourers from South Korea and China.
However, interest in the grisly island had grown and a broad walk had been constructed to allow people to view the island within limited parameters.
While the deserted Hashima island in Nagasaki could be one of the most haunted places in the world, it would not stop Nagasaki from beckoning people to come to visit Japan again with the reopening of Japan to the world after what is regarded as one of the strictest bans on foreign travellers for nearly two years brought on by the onset of the pandemic.
Edited by Salbiah Said
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