Nagasaki#Atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II

{{For timeline}}

{{Main|Portuguese Nagasaki|Dejima}}

The first recorded contact between Portuguese explorers and Japan occurred in 1543, when a Portuguese ship, possibly a Chinese junk carrying Portuguese sailors, was blown off course and landed on Tanegashima, an island south of Kyūshū. This event marked the beginning of direct contact between Japan and Europe.{{Cite web |title=Europeans Begin Trade with Japan {{!}} EBSCO Research Starters |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/europeans-begin-trade-japan |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.ebsco.com |language=en}}

Two Portuguese traders, António Mota and Francisco Zeimoto, were among the crew members. They introduced the Japanese to firearms, specifically the Portuguese matchlock guns known as harquebuses. The local lord, Tanegashima Tokitaka, purchased two of these firearms and had local blacksmiths replicate them, leading to the development of the "tanegashima" guns in Japan.{{Cite web |last=Low |first=Spencer |date=2023-01-29 |title=Japan & Portugal: 480 years of friendship |url=https://www.portuguese.asia/post/japan-portugal-480-years-of-friendship |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Portuguese in Asia |language=en}}

Fernão Mendes Pinto, a Portuguese adventurer and writer, claimed in his memoirs, Peregrinação, that he was part of the first landing party in 1543. However, his account is considered unreliable, and historians generally agree that he was not among the first Europeans to reach Japan.{{Cite journal |last=Yamafune |first=Kotaro |title=Portuguese Ships on Japanese Namban Screens |date=2012 |doi=10.13140/RG.2.1.3612.3282 |url=https://www.academia.edu/15232598 |journal=Academia Materials Science |volume=2 |issue=2}}

The introduction of firearms had a significant impact on Japanese warfare, contributing to the unification of Japan during the Sengoku period. The Portuguese also introduced other goods and ideas, including Christianity, which further influenced Japanese society.

Today, the arrival of the Portuguese in 1543 is commemorated in Tanegashima with the annual Teppō Matsuri (Firearm Festival), celebrating the island's historical connection to the introduction of firearms in Japan.

Soon after, Portuguese ships started sailing to Japan as regular trade freighters, thus increasing the contact and trade relations between Japan and the rest of the world, and particularly with mainland China, with whom Japan had previously severed its commercial and political ties, mainly due to a number of incidents involving wokou piracy in the South China Sea, with the Portuguese now serving as intermediaries between the two East Asian neighbors.

Despite the mutual advantages derived from these trading contacts, which would soon be acknowledged by all parties involved, the lack of a proper seaport in Kyūshū for the purpose of harboring foreign ships posed a major problem for both merchants and the Kyushu daimyōs (feudal lords) who expected to collect great advantages from the trade with the Portuguese.

In the meantime, Spanish Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier arrived in Kagoshima, South Kyūshū, in 1549. After a somewhat fruitful two-year sojourn in Japan, he left for China in 1552 but died soon afterwards.Diego Pacheco. "Xavier and Tanegashima." Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter, 1974), pp. 477–480 His followers who remained behind converted a number of daimyōs. The most notable among them was Ōmura Sumitada. In 1569, Ōmura granted a permit for the establishment of a port with the purpose of harboring Portuguese ships in Nagasaki, which was set up in 1571, under the supervision of the Jesuit missionary Gaspar Vilela and Portuguese Captain-Major Tristão Vaz de Veiga, with Ōmura's personal assistance.Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan 1549–1650, p. 100–101

The little harbor village quickly grew into a diverse port city,{{Cite web | url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/art-japan/edo-period/a/arrival-of-a-portuguese-ship | title=Arrival of a Portuguese ship | access-date=February 18, 2020 | archive-date=August 4, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804195413/https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/art-japan/edo-period/a/arrival-of-a-portuguese-ship | url-status=live }} 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 derived from a popular Portuguese recipe originally known as peixinhos da horta, and takes its name from the Portuguese word, 'tempero,' seasoning, and refers to the tempora quadragesima, forty days of Lent during which eating meat was forbidden, another example of the enduring effects of this cultural exchange. The Portuguese also brought with them many goods from other Asian countries, such as China. The value of Portuguese exports from Nagasaki during the 16th century were estimated to ascend to over 1,000,000 cruzados, reaching as many as 3,000,000 in 1637.C. R. Boxer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=pOoYAAAAIAAJ&q=The+Great+Ship+from+Amacon The Great Ship from Amacon – Annals of Macau and the old Japan trade 1555–1640] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414043924/https://books.google.com/books?id=pOoYAAAAIAAJ&q=The+Great+Ship+from+Amacon |date=April 14, 2023 }} p. 169.

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 daimyō. 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.Diego Paccheco, Monumenta Nipponica, 1970 In 1587, however, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign to unify the country arrived in Kyūshū. Concerned with the large Christian influence in Kyūshū, Hideyoshi ordered the expulsion of all missionaries, and placed the city under his direct control. However, the expulsion order went largely unenforced, and the fact remained that most of Nagasaki's population remained openly practicing Catholic.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe was wrecked off the coast of Shikoku, and Hideyoshi learned from its pilotso says the Jesuit account 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 the next year (i.e. the "Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan"). Portuguese traders were not ostracized, however, and so the city continued to thrive.

In 1602, Augustinian missionaries also arrived in Japan, and when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in 1603, Catholicism was still tolerated. Many Catholic daimyōs 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. In addition, the Dutch and English presence allowed trade without religious strings attached. Thus, in 1614, Catholicism was officially banned and all missionaries ordered to leave. Most Catholic daimyo apostatized, and forced their subjects to do so, although a few would not renounce the religion and left the country for Macau, Luzon and Japantowns in Southeast Asia. A brutal campaign of persecution followed, with thousands of converts across Kyūshū and other parts of Japan killed, tortured, or forced to renounce their religion. Many Japanese and foreign Christians were executed by public crucifixion and burning at the stake in Nagasaki.{{Cite book |url = http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Japan02.htm |title =MARTYRS OF JAPAN († 1597-1637) (poz. 10) | access-date = March 22, 2011| author= | publisher = | language =en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123203927/http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Japan02.htm |archive-date=November 23, 2021}}{{cite web | title=Martyrs List | url=http://www1.bbiq.jp/martyrs/ListEngl.html | publisher=Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum | access-date=2010-01-11 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214135648/http://www1.bbiq.jp/martyrs/ListEngl.html | archive-date=2010-02-14 }} They became known as the Martyrs of Japan and were later venerated by several Popes.{{cite web |url=http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Japan03.htm |title=Martyrs of Japan (1603–39) |website= Hagiography Circle |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609051808/http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Japan03.htm |archive-date=June 9, 2021}}

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. While there is no evidence that Europeans directly incited the rebellion, Shimabara Domain had been a Christian han for several decades, and the rebels adopted many Portuguese motifs and Christian icons. Consequently, in Tokugawa society the word "Shimabara" solidified the connection between Christianity and disloyalty. 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 were expelled from the archipelago altogether. They had previously been living on a specially constructed artificial island in Nagasaki harbour that served as a trading post, called Dejima. The Dutch were then moved from their base at Hirado onto the artificial island.

{{Gallery

| mode = packed

| align = center

| height = 140

| File:Macau Trade Routes.png|Portuguese (green) and Spanish (yellow) trade routes to Macao and Nagasaki

| File:Nanban-Screens-by-Kano-Naizen-c1600.png|Nanban trade by Kanō Naizen, {{circa|1600}}. The screen shows Portuguese merchants docking in Japan.

| File:Tojin-yashiki.jpg|The Chinese traders at Nagasaki were confined to a walled compound (Tōjin yashiki), {{circa|1688}}

}}

{{clear}}

File:Deshima - KONB11-388A6-NA-P-052-GRAV.jpg was an artificial island in Nagasaki Bay; its fan shape was easily recognizable. The trading post consisted mainly of warehouses and dwelling houses (1669 engraving).]]

The Great Fire of Nagasaki destroyed much of the city in 1663, including the Mazu shrine at the Kofuku Temple patronized by the Chinese sailors and merchants visiting the port.{{citation |contribution=Cultural Properties |contribution-url=http://kofukuji.com/english/properties.php |url=http://kofukuji.com/ |title=Official site |access-date=December 23, 2016 |location=Nagasaki |publisher=Thomeizan Kofukuji |archive-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228051540/http://kofukuji.com/ |url-status=live }}

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 what was called rangaku, or "Dutch learning". During the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate governed the city, appointing a {{lang|ja-latn|hatamoto}}, the Nagasaki bugyō, as its chief administrator. During this period, Nagasaki was designated a "shogunal city". The number of such cities rose from three to eleven under the Tokugawa administration.Cullen, Louis M. (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ycY_85OInSoC&q=bugyo&pg=PA59 A History of Japan, 1582–1941: Internal and External Worlds, p. 159.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406145220/https://books.google.com/books?id=ycY_85OInSoC&q=bugyo&pg=PA59 |date=April 6, 2023 }}

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. Nevertheless, Nagasaki was depicted in contemporary art and literature as a cosmopolitan port brimming with exotic curiosities from the Western world.Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan, Richard Bowring and Haruko Laurie

In 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Phaeton entered Nagasaki Harbor in search of Dutch trading ships. The local magistrate was unable to resist the crew’s demand for food, fuel, and water, later committing seppuku as a result. Laws were passed in the wake of this incident strengthening coastal defenses, threatening death to intruding foreigners, and prompting the training of English and Russian translators.

The Tōjinyashiki (唐人屋敷) or Chinese Factory in Nagasaki was also an important conduit for Chinese goods and information for the Japanese market. Various Chinese merchants and artists sailed between the Chinese mainland and Nagasaki. Some actually combined the roles of merchant and artist such as 18th century Yi Hai. It is believed that as much as one-third of the population of Nagasaki at this time may have been Chinese.Screech, Timon. The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens Within the Heart. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. p15. The Chinese traders at Nagasaki were confined to a walled compound (Tōjin yashiki) which was located in the same vicinity as Dejima island, and the activities of the Chinese, though less strictly controlled than the Dutch, were closely monitored by the Nagasaki bugyō.

With the Meiji Restoration, Japan opened its doors once again to foreign trade and diplomatic relations. Nagasaki became a treaty port in 1859 and modernization began in earnest in 1868. Nagasaki was officially proclaimed a city on April 1, 1889. With Christianity legalized and the Kakure Kirishitan coming out of hiding, Nagasaki regained its earlier role as a center for Roman Catholicism in Japan.{{cite book|last1=Doak|first1=Kevin M.|editor1-last=Doak|editor1-first=Kevin M.|title=Xavier's Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Japanese Culture|date=2011|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=9780774820240|pages=12–13|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Rr6CRwj9aAC&pg=PA13|access-date=February 27, 2018|chapter=Introduction: Catholicism, Modernity, and Japanese Culture|quote=In 1904, Catholics in Nagasaki, with their deep ties to the past, were three times more numerous than Catholics in the rest of Japan...}}

During the Meiji period, Nagasaki became a center of heavy industry. Its main industry was ship-building, with the dockyards under control of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries becoming one of the prime contractors for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and with Nagasaki harbor used as an anchorage under the control of nearby Sasebo Naval District. During World War II, at the time of the nuclear attack, Nagasaki was an important industrial city, containing both plants of the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, the Akunoura Engine Works, Mitsubishi Arms Plant, Mitsubishi Electric Shipyards, Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works, several other small factories, and most of the ports storage and trans-shipment facilities, which employed about 90% of the city's labor force, and accounted for 90% of the city's industry. These connections with the Japanese war effort made Nagasaki a major target for strategic bombing by the Allies during the war.{{cite web |publisher=United States Strategic Bombing Survey |title=Chapter II The Effects of the Atomic Bombings |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/AtomicEffects/AtomicEffects-2.html |access-date=December 27, 2014 |archive-date=September 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920201751/http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/AtomicEffects/AtomicEffects-2.html |url-status=live }}{{cite book |title=How Effective is Strategic Bombing?: Lessons Learned From World War II to Kosovo (World of War) |pages=86–87 |date=December 1, 2000 |publisher=NYU Press}}

{{Gallery

| mode = packed

| align = center

| height = 140

| File:Nagasaki illustration2.jpeg|Plan of Nagasaki, Hizen province, 1778

| File:View of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay Folding Screen by Kawahara Keiga c1836.jpg|View of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay by Kawahara Keigo c. 1836

| File:View of Nagasaki Bay by Antoon Bauduin c1865.png|View of Nagasaki Bay, c. 1865

| File:UCHIDA_KUICHI_Nagasaki.png|View of Nagasaki in 1870s

}}

{{main|Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki#Nagasaki}}

File:Nagasakibomb.jpg

File:Sanno_torii_boxed_in_red.jpg in the foreground and a one-legged torii in the background, Nagasaki, October 1945]]

In the 12 months prior to the nuclear attack, Nagasaki had experienced five small-scale air attacks by an aggregate of 136 U.S. planes which dropped a total of 270 tons of high explosives, 53 tons of incendiaries, and 20 tons of fragmentation bombs. Of these, a raid of August 1, 1945, was the most effective, with a few of the bombs hitting the shipyards and dock areas in the southwest portion of the city, several hitting the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, and six bombs landing at the Nagasaki Medical School and Hospital, with three direct hits on buildings there. While the damage from these few bombs was relatively small, it created considerable concern in Nagasaki and a number of people, principally school children, were evacuated to rural areas for safety, consequently reducing the population in the city at the time of the atomic attack.{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mp07.asp|title=Avalon Project – The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|access-date=December 27, 2014|archive-date=December 20, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220192659/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mp07.asp|url-status=live}}{{cite book |last= Bradley |first= F.J. |title=No Strategic Targets Left |year=1999 |page=103 |publisher=Turner Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-5631-1483-0}}

On the day of the nuclear strike (August 9, 1945) the population in Nagasaki was estimated to be 263,000, which consisted of 240,000 Japanese residents, 10,000 Korean residents, 2,500 conscripted Korean workers, 9,000 Japanese soldiers, 600 conscripted Chinese workers, and 400 Allied POWs.{{Cite web |title=Nagasaki atomic bombing, 1945 |url=http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents/1945JAP2.html |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=www.johnstonsarchive.net}} That day, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, commanded by Major Charles Sweeney, departed from Tinian's North Field just before dawn, this time carrying a plutonium bomb, code named "Fat Man". The primary target for the bomb was Kokura, with the secondary target being Nagasaki, if the primary target was too cloudy to make a visual sighting. When the plane reached Kokura at 9:44 a.m. (10:44 am. Tinian Time), the city was obscured by clouds and smoke, as the nearby city of Yahata had been firebombed on the previous day – the steel plant in Yahata had also instructed their workforce to intentionally set fire to containers of coal tar, to produce target-obscuring black smoke.{{cite web| url=http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/news/20140726p2a00m0na014000c.html| title=Steel mill worker reveals blocking view of U.S. aircraft on day of Nagasaki atomic bombing| work=Mainichi Weekly| access-date=January 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122171430/http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/news/20140726p2a00m0na014000c.html|archive-date=November 22, 2015}} Unable to make a bombing attack 'on visual' because of the clouds and smoke, and with limited fuel, the plane left the city at 10:30 a.m. for the secondary target. After 20 minutes, the plane arrived at 10:50 a.m. over Nagasaki, but the city was also concealed by clouds. Desperately short of fuel and after making a couple of bombing runs without obtaining any visual target, the crew was forced to use radar to drop the bomb. At the last minute, the opening of the clouds allowed them to make visual contact with a racetrack in Nagasaki, and they dropped the bomb on the city's Urakami Valley midway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works in the south, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works in the north.{{cite book |title=The History and Science of the Manhattan Project |author= Bruce Cameron Reed |date= October 16, 2013 |page=400 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-6424-0296-8}} The bomb exploded 47 seconds after its release, at 11:02 a.m. at an approximate altitude of 1,800 feet.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652262.shtml|title=BBC - WW2 People's War – Timeline|access-date=February 18, 2020|archive-date=August 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831135828/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652262.shtml|url-status=live}}

Less than a second after the detonation, the north of the city was destroyed and more than 10% of the city's population were killed.{{cite book |title=Welcome To Planet Earth – 2050 – Population Zero |author= Robert Hull |date=October 11, 2011 |page=215 |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1-4634-2604-0}}{{Better source needed|date=August 2024|reason=self-published non-notable author}}{{Unreliable fringe source|date=August 2024}} Among the 35,000 deaths were 150 Japanese soldiers, 6,200 out of the 7,500 employees of the Mitsubishi Munitions plant, and 24,000 others (including 2,000 Koreans). The industrial damage in Nagasaki was high, leaving 68{{nbnd}}80% of the non-dock industrial production destroyed. It was the second and, to date, the last use of a nuclear weapon in combat, and also the second detonation of a plutonium bomb. The first combat use of a nuclear weapon was the "Little Boy" bomb, which was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The first plutonium bomb was tested in central New Mexico, United States, on July 16, 1945. The Fat Man bomb was more powerful than the one dropped over Hiroshima, but because of Nagasaki's more uneven terrain, there was less damage.{{cite book |title=Nuke-Rebuke: Writers & Artists Against Nuclear Energy & Weapons (The Contemporary anthology series) |pages=22–29 |date=May 1, 1984 |publisher=The Spirit That Moves Us Press}}{{harvnb|Groves|1962|pp=343–346}}.{{harvnb|Hoddeson|Henriksen|Meade|Westfall|1993|pp=396–397}}

The city was rebuilt after the war, albeit dramatically changed. The pace of reconstruction was slow. The first simple emergency dwellings were not provided until 1946. The focus of redevelopment was the replacement of war industries with foreign trade, shipbuilding and fishing. This was formally declared when the Nagasaki International Culture City Reconstruction Law was passed in May 1949.{{cite web|url=http://atomicbombmuseum.org/4_ruins.shtml|title=AtomicBombMuseum.org – After the Bomb|access-date=December 3, 2013|archive-date=February 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219200252/http://www.atomicbombmuseum.org/4_ruins.shtml|url-status=live}} New temples were built, as well as new churches, owing to an increase in the presence of Christianity.{{cite web|url=http://www.world-guides.com/asia/japan/kyushu/nagasaki/nagasaki_history.html|title=Nagasaki History Facts and Timeline|access-date=December 3, 2013|archive-date=September 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928165803/http://www.world-guides.com/asia/japan/kyushu/nagasaki/nagasaki_history.html|url-status=live}} Some of the rubble was left as a memorial, such as a one-legged torii at Sannō Shrine and an arch near ground zero. New structures were also raised as memorials, such as the Atomic Bomb Museum. Nagasaki remains primarily a port city, supporting a rich shipbuilding industry.

On January 4, 2005, the towns of Iōjima, Kōyagi, Nomozaki, Sanwa, Sotome and Takashima (all from Nishisonogi District) were officially merged into Nagasaki along with the town of Kinkai the following year.

{{Gallery

| mode = packed

| align = center

| height = 140

| File:ModernDayNagasaki.jpg|Modern Nagasaki, Oura Cathedral on a slope, 2005

| File:Nagasaki_City_view_from_Hamahira01s3.jpg|Night view of Nagasaki seen from Mount Konpira, 2012

| File:Nagasaki City View from Glover Garden, Nagasaki 2014.jpg|View of Nagasaki seen from Glover Garden, 2014

}}

File:NagasakiBay-morning-722am-2016-1-4.ogv

Nagasaki and Nishisonogi Peninsulas are located within the city limits. The city is surrounded by the cities of Isahaya and Saikai, and the towns of Togitsu and Nagayo in Nishisonogi District.

Nagasaki lies at the head of a long bay that forms the best natural harbor on the island of Kyūshū. The main commercial and residential area of the city lies on a small plain near the end of the bay. Two rivers divided by a mountain spur form the two main valleys in which the city lies. The heavily built-up area of the city is confined by the terrain to less than {{convert|4|sqmi|km2}}.

Nagasaki has the typical humid subtropical climate of Kyūshū and Honshū, characterized by mild winters and long, hot, and humid summers. Apart from Kanazawa and Shizuoka, it is the wettest sizeable city in Japan. In the summer, the combination of persistent heat and high humidity results in unpleasant conditions, with wet-bulb temperatures sometimes reaching {{convert|26|C|F}}. In the winter, however, Nagasaki is drier and sunnier than Gotō to the west, and temperatures are slightly milder than further inland in Kyūshū. Since records began in 1878, the wettest month has been July 1982, with {{convert|1178|mm|in|0}} including {{convert|555|mm|in|1}} in a single day, whilst the driest month has been September 1967, with {{convert|1.8|mm|in|2}}. Precipitation occurs year-round, though winter is the driest season; rainfall peaks sharply in June and July. August is the warmest month of the year. On January 24, 2016, a snowfall of {{convert|17|cm|in|1}} was recorded.{{cite web|url=http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20160125/k10010385121000.html |title=あすにかけ全国的に厳しい冷え込み続く |trans-title=Severe cold weather continues across the country into tomorrow |date=January 25, 2016 |website=nhk.or.jp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127195327/http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20160125/k10010385121000.html |archive-date=January 27, 2016 |url-status=dead}}

{{Weather box

|location = Nagasaki (1991−2020 normals, extremes 1878−present)

|single line = Y

|metric first = Y

|Jan record high C = 21.3

|Feb record high C = 22.6

|Mar record high C = 24.4

|Apr record high C = 29.0

|May record high C = 31.4

|Jun record high C = 36.4

|Jul record high C = 37.7

|Aug record high C = 37.7

|Sep record high C = 36.7

|Oct record high C = 33.7

|Nov record high C = 27.4

|Dec record high C = 23.8

|Jan record low C = -5.6

|Feb record low C = -4.8

|Mar record low C = -3.6

|Apr record low C = 0.2

|May record low C = 5.3

|Jun record low C = 8.9

|Jul record low C = 15.0

|Aug record low C = 16.4

|Sep record low C = 11.1

|Oct record low C = 4.9

|Nov record low C = -0.2

|Dec record low C = -3.9

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 63.1

|Feb precipitation mm = 84.0

|Mar precipitation mm = 123.2

|Apr precipitation mm = 153.0

|May precipitation mm = 160.7

|Jun precipitation mm = 335.9

|Jul precipitation mm = 292.7

|Aug precipitation mm = 217.9

|Sep precipitation mm = 186.6

|Oct precipitation mm = 102.1

|Nov precipitation mm = 100.7

|Dec precipitation mm = 74.8

|year precipitation mm = 1894.7

|Jan mean C = 7.2

|Feb mean C = 8.1

|Mar mean C = 11.2

|Apr mean C = 15.6

|May mean C = 19.7

|Jun mean C = 23.0

|Jul mean C = 26.9

|Aug mean C = 28.1

|Sep mean C = 24.9

|Oct mean C = 20.0

|Nov mean C = 14.5

|Dec mean C = 9.4

|year mean C = 17.4

|Jan high C = 10.7

|Feb high C = 12.0

|Mar high C = 15.3

|Apr high C = 19.9

|May high C = 23.9

|Jun high C = 26.5

|Jul high C = 30.3

|Aug high C = 31.9

|Sep high C = 28.9

|Oct high C = 24.1

|Nov high C = 18.5

|Dec high C = 13.1

|year high C = 21.2

|Jan low C = 4.0

|Feb low C = 4.5

|Mar low C = 7.5

|Apr low C = 11.7

|May low C = 16.1

|Jun low C = 20.2

|Jul low C = 24.5

|Aug low C = 25.3

|Sep low C = 21.9

|Oct low C = 16.5

|Nov low C = 11.0

|Dec low C = 6.0

|year low C = 14.1

|Jan humidity = 66

|Feb humidity = 65

|Mar humidity = 65

|Apr humidity = 67

|May humidity = 72

|Jun humidity = 80

|Jul humidity = 80

|Aug humidity = 76

|Sep humidity = 73

|Oct humidity = 67

|Nov humidity = 68

|Dec humidity = 67

|year humidity = 71

|Jan sun = 103.7

|Feb sun = 122.3

|Mar sun = 159.5

|Apr sun = 178.1

|May sun = 189.6

|Jun sun = 125.0

|Jul sun = 175.3

|Aug sun = 207.0

|Sep sun = 172.2

|Oct sun = 178.9

|Nov sun = 137.2

|Dec sun = 114.3

|year sun = 1863.1

|Jan snow cm = 3

|Feb snow cm = 0

|Mar snow cm = 0

|Apr snow cm = 0

|May snow cm = 0

|Jun snow cm = 0

|Jul snow cm = 0

|Aug snow cm = 0

|Sep snow cm = 0

|Oct snow cm = 0

|Nov snow cm = 0

|Dec snow cm = 0

|year snow cm = 4

|unit precipitation days = 0.5 mm

|Jan precipitation days = 10.4

|Feb precipitation days = 10.2

|Mar precipitation days = 11.4

|Apr precipitation days = 10.3

|May precipitation days = 10.1

|Jun precipitation days = 14.3

|Jul precipitation days = 11.9

|Aug precipitation days = 10.7

|Sep precipitation days = 9.8

|Oct precipitation days = 6.7

|Nov precipitation days = 9.5

|Dec precipitation days = 10.2

|year precipitation days = 125.6

|source 1 = Japan Meteorological Agency{{cite web

| url = https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/index.php?prec_no=84&block_no=47817&year=&month=&day=&view=

| script-title = ja:気象庁 / 平年値（年・月ごとの値）

| publisher = Japan Meteorological Agency

| access-date = May 19, 2021

| archive-date = May 21, 2021

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210521160814/https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/index.php?prec_no=84&block_no=47817&year=&month=&day=&view=

| url-status = live

}}

}}

• Kwassui Women's University
• Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science
• Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University
• Nagasaki University
• Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies{{cite web |url=http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/english/index.html |script-title=ja:長崎外国語大学 |trans-title=Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies |publisher=Nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp |access-date=March 12, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330033437/http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/english/index.html |archive-date=March 30, 2013 }}
• Nagasaki Wesleyan University

• Nagasaki Junior College
• Nagasaki Junshin Junior College
• Nagasaki Gyokusei Junior College, formerly {{Nihongo|Tamaki Women's Junior College|玉木女子短期大学}} (closed 2012)
• Nagasaki Women's Junior College

{{expand section|date=June 2023}}

• Machinery and heavy industry
• Mitsubishi
• Shipbuilding

{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2023}}File:Nagasaki Trolley M5199.jpg

The nearest airport is Nagasaki Airport in the nearby city of Ōmura. The Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) provides rail transportation on the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen and Nagasaki Main Line, whose terminal is at Nagasaki Station. In addition, the Nagasaki Electric Tramway operates five routes in the city. The Nagasaki Expressway serves vehicular traffic with interchanges at Nagasaki and Susukizuka. In addition, six national highways crisscross the city: Route 34, 202, 206, 251, 324, and 499.

{{expand section|date=July 2017}}

File:Nagasaki population pyramid in 2020.svg

On August 9, 1945, the population was estimated to be 263,000. As of March 1, 2017, the city had a population of 505,723 and a population density of 1,000 people per km².

{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2023}}

Nagasaki is represented in the J.League of football with its local club, V-Varen Nagasaki.

File:NagasakiHypocenter.jpg in Nagasaki]]

File:Nagasaki peace memorial hall.jpg

File:Sofukuji Nagasaki Japan30n.jpg (National treasure of Japan)]]

• Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan
• Confucius Shrine, Nagasaki
• Dejima Museum of History
• Former residence of Shuhan Takashima
• Former site of Latin Seminario
• Former site of the British Consulate in Nagasaki
• Former site of Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Nagasaki Branch
• Glover Garden
• Former Glover Residence
• Former Alt Residence
• Former Ringer Residence
• Former Walker Residence
• Fukusai-ji
• Gunkanjima
• Higashi-Yamate Juniban Mansion
• Kazagashira Park
• Kofukuji
• Megane Bridge
• Mount Inasa
• Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum{{cite web|url=http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/na-bomb/museum/index.html |script-title=ja:お知らせ 長崎市平和・原爆のホームページが変わりました。|publisher=.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp|access-date=June 1, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020601132925/http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/na-bomb/museum/index.html|archive-date=June 1, 2002}} (located next to the Peace Park)
• Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture{{cite web |url=http://www.nmhc.jp/index.html |script-title=ja:長崎歴史文化博物館 |publisher=Nmhc.jp |access-date=June 1, 2011 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225190545/http://www.nmhc.jp/index.html |url-status=live }}
• Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims
• Nagasaki Peace Park
• Atomic Bomb Hypocenter (located near the Peace Park)
• Nagasaki Peace Pagoda
• Nagasaki Penguin Aquarium{{cite web|url=http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/penguin/ |script-title=ja:移転のお知らせ|publisher=.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp|access-date=June 1, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607172756/http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/penguin/|archive-date=June 7, 2011}}
• Nagasaki Chinatown
• Nagasaki Science Museum
• Nagasaki Subtropical Botanical Garden
• Nyoko-do Hermitage
• Oranda-zaka
• Sannō Shrine – One-legged stone torii, sometimes called an arch or gateway.
• Sakamoto International Cemetery
• Shōfuku-ji
• Siebold Memorial Museum
• Sōfuku-ji – Daiyūhōden and Daiippomon are national treasures of Japan.
• Suwa Shrine
• Syusaku Endo Literature Museum
• Tateyama Park
• Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument
• Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum
• Urakami Cathedral
• Miyo-Ken, a temple where the white snake is worshipped{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SY6DUnOOZSAC&q=nagasaki+serpent&pg=PA270 |title=The Encircled Serpent: A Study of Serpent Symbolism in All Countries and Ages – M. Oldfield Howey – Google Books |date=March 31, 2005 |access-date=March 12, 2013 |isbn=9780766192614 |last1=Oldfield Howey |first1=M. |publisher=Kessinger |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928165757/https://books.google.com/books?id=SY6DUnOOZSAC&q=nagasaki+serpent&pg=PA270 |url-status=live }}

{{Wide image|Nagasaki vue du Mont Inasa.jpg|1000px|Nagasaki City seen from the Inasayama Observatory, facing southeast.}}

File:Nagasaki Lantern Festival - 01.jpg]]

The Nagasaki Lantern Festival{{cite web |url=https://www.at-nagasaki.jp/lantern-festival |script-title=ja:長崎ランタンフェスティバル |publisher=Nagasaki City |access-date=17 May 2024}} is celebrated annually over the first 15 days of Chinese New Year{{cite web |url=https://en.japantravel.com/nagasaki/nagasaki-lantern-festival/33245 |title=Nagasaki Lantern Festival |publisher=Japan Travel |access-date=17 May 2024}} and is the largest of its kind in all of Japan.{{cite web |url=https://www.discover-nagasaki.com/en/sightseeing/51795 |title=Nagasaki Lantern Festival |publisher=Nagasaki Prefecture Tourism Association |access-date=17 May 2024}}

Kunchi, the most famous festival in Nagasaki, is held from October 7–9.{{Cite journal |last=Hesselink |first=Reinier H. |date=2004 |title=The Two Faces of Nagasaki: The World of the Suwa Festival Screen |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25066290 |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=179–222 |jstor=25066290 |issn=0027-0741}}

The Prince Takamatsu Cup Nishinippon Round-Kyūshū Ekiden, the world's longest relay race, begins in Nagasaki each November.

File:Shikairo_Nagasaki_Japan05s.jpg]]

• Tempura
• Castella
• Champon
• Sara udon
• Mogi Biwa
• Chinese confections
• Urakami Soboro
• Shippoku Cuisine
• Toruko rice (Turkish rice)
• Karasumi
• Nagasaki Kakuni

• Mr. Gannosuke
• Kazuo Ishiguro
• Noboru Kaneko
• Mitsurou Kubo
• Masaharu Fukuyama
• Ariana Miyamoto
• Neru Nagahama
• Takashi Nagai
• {{ill|Keita Ogawa|ja|小川慶太}}
• Saint Marina of Omura
• Atsushi Onita
• Kaori Sakagami
• Tsutomu Yamaguchi
• Maya Yoshida

{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Japan}}

The city of Nagasaki maintains sister cities or friendship relations with other cities worldwide.{{cite web|url=http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/kokusai/english/exchange_e.html |title=Sister Cities of Nagasaki City |publisher=Nagasaki City Hall International Affairs Section|access-date=July 10, 2009 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090729002642/http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/kokusai/english/index-e.html|archive-date=July 29, 2009}}

• {{flagicon|Japan}} Hiroshima, Japan
• {{flagicon|United States}} St. Louis, United States (1972)
• {{flagicon|United States}} Saint Paul, United States (1955)
• {{flagicon|Bulgaria}} Dupnitsa, Bulgaria
• {{flagicon|Brazil}} Santos, Brazil (1972)
• {{flagicon|China}} Fuzhou, China, (1980)
• {{flagicon|The Netherlands}} Middelburg, Netherlands (1978)
• {{flagicon|Portugal}} Porto, Portugal (1978){{cite web|url=http://www.cm-porto.pt/document/449218/481584.pdf|title=International Relations of the City of Porto|publisher=Municipal Directorate of the Presidency Services International Relations Office|access-date=July 10, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113054303/http://www.cm-porto.pt/document/449218/481584.pdf|archive-date=January 13, 2012|url-status=dead}}
• {{flagicon|France}} Vaux-sur-Aure, France (2005)

{{Portal|Japan}}

• Cultural treatments of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Foreign cemeteries in Japan
• Hashima Island (Gunkanjima)
• Junior College of Commerce Nagasaki University (1951-2000)

{{Reflist}}

{{See also|Timeline of Nagasaki#Bibliography|l1=Bibliography of the history of Nagasaki}}

• {{cite book |last=Groves |first=Leslie |author-link=Leslie Groves |title=Now it Can be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project |location=New York |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1983 | orig-year = 1962 |isbn=978-0-306-80189-1 |oclc=932666584 |ref=CITEREFGroves1962}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hoddeson |first1=Lillian|author-link=Lillian Hoddeson|first2=Paul W. |last2=Henriksen |first3=Roger A. |last3=Meade |first4=Catherine L. |last4=Westfall|author4-link= Catherine Westfall | title=Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945 | location=New York | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1993 | isbn=978-0-521-44132-2 | oclc=26764320 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/criticalassembly0000unse }}

{{Commons category|Nagasaki}}

{{Wikivoyage|Nagasaki}}

• {{Official website|http://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/}} {{in lang|ja}}
• {{Official website|http://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp.e.jc.hp.transer.com/}} {{in lang|en}}
• [http://zidbits.com/2013/11/is-nagasaki-and-hiroshima-still-radioactive/ Is Nagasaki still radioactive?] – No. Includes explanation.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140811194213/http://oldnewmaps.com/2014/08/05/nagasaki-atomic-bomb-9-august-1945/ Nagasaki after atomic bombing] – interactive aerial map
• [http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/hiroshima-nagasaki/index.htm Nuclear Files.org] Comprehensive information on the history, and political and social implications of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070117193919/http://www.ngs-kenkanren.com/mlang/english/ Nagasaki Prefectural Tourism Federation]
• [http://www.e-nagasaki.com/ Nagasaki Product Promotion Association]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080716034930/http://www.nia.or.jp/english/gaikoku/index.html Useful information for foreign residents], produced by Nagasaki International Association
• {{Osmrelation-inline|4011885}}

{{Nagasaki}}

{{Metropolitan cities of Japan}}

{{Most populous cities in Japan}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Category:Cities in Nagasaki Prefecture

Category:Destroyed populated places

Category:Populated coastal places in Japan

Category:Populated places established in the 16th century

Category:Port settlements in Japan

Category:World War II sites in Japan