Nagasaki
It was a center of Portuguese and European influence in the 16th through 19th centuries. Nagasaki became a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War.
During World War II, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and last city in the world to be subject to nuclear warfare.
History
Medieval and early modern eras
Founded by the Portuguese before 1500, Nagasaki was originally secluded by harbors.
It enjoyed little historical significance until contact with European explorers in 1542, when a Portuguese ship landed nearby, somewhere in Kagoshima prefecture. Francis Xavier arrived in another part of the territory in 1549, but left for China in 1551 and died soon afterwards.
His followers who remained behind converted a number of daimyo (feudal lords). The most notable among them was Ōmura Sumitada, who derived great profit from his conversion to the "Kirishitan" religion 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.
Kameyama Ware Jar With Nagasaki Dutch Trading Ship, 19th Century
The little harbor village quickly grew into a diverse port city, and Portuguese products imported through Nagasaki (such as tobacco, bread, textiles and a Portuguese sponge-cake called castellas) were assimilated into popular Japanese culture.
Tempura, while not Portuguese in origin, takes its name from the Portuguese word, 'Tempero,' another example of the enduring effects of this cultural exchange. The Portuguese also brought with them many goods from China.
Due to the instability during the Sengoku 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.
Thus, for a brief period after 1580, the city of Nagasaki was a Jesuit colony, under their administrative and military control. It became a refuge for Christians escaping maltreatment in other regions of Japan. In 1587, however, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign to unify the country arrived in Kyūshū.
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 that the Spanish Franciscans were the vanguard of an Iberian invasion of Japan. In response, Hideyoshi ordered the crucifixions of twenty-six Catholics in Nagasaki on February 5 of that year (i.e.
Portuguese traders were not ostracized, however, and so the city continued to thrive.
Meganebashi (Spectacles Bridge)
In 1602, Augustinian missionaries also arrived in Japan, and when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in 1603, Catholicism was still tolerated. Many Catholic daimyo had been critical allies at the Battle of Sekigahara, and the Tokugawa position was not strong enough to move against them.
Once Osaka Castle had been taken and Toyotomi Hideyoshi's offspring killed, though, the Tokugawa dominance was assured. Thus, in 1614, Catholicism was officially banned and all missionaries ordered to leave.
Consequently, in Tokugawa society the word "Shimabara" solidified the connection between Christianity and disloyalty, constantly used again and again in Tokugawa propaganda.
The Shimabara Rebellion also convinced many policy-makers that foreign influences were more trouble than they were worth, leading to the national isolation policy. The Portuguese, who had been previously living on a specially-constructed island-prison in Nagasaki harbor called Dejima, 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. During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate governed the city, appointing a hatamoto, the Nagasaki bugyō, as its chief administrator.
Ōura Church built in 1864 is a national treasure of Japan
Consensus among historians was once that Nagasaki was Japan's only window on the world during its time as a closed country in the Tokugawa era.
However, nowadays it is generally accepted that this was not the case, since Japan interacted and traded with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, Korea and Russia through Satsuma, Tsushima and Matsumae respectively. The local magistrate was unable to resist the British demand for food, fuel, and water, later committing seppuku as a result.
Nagasaki remains first and foremost a port city, supporting a rich shipping industry and setting a strong example of perseverance and peace.
Geography
Nagasaki and Nishisonogi Peninsulas are located within the city limits. The main commercial and residential area of the city lies on a small plain near the end of the bay.
The Nagasaki Expressway serves vehicular traffic with interchanges at Nagasaki and Susukizuka.