Hypocenter Park [爆心地公園]
Hypocenter Cenotaph
Remaining Urakami Cathedral
At 11:02 a.m., on August 9th, 1945, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Bockscar dropped the second atomic bomb in human history on Nagasaki.
The bomb exploded at a height of roughly 500 meters in the sky just over this park.
The A-bomb killed about 74 thousand people and injured about 75 thousand people in a moment.
Three days ago, Hiroshima had been destroyed by the first A-Bomb.
Soon after the operation, the US forces started the next attack.
The next target was Kitakyushu city in Fukuoka Prefecture.
But the weather in Kiyakyushu was bad on the day, so they changed the target to Nagasaki in a hurry.
Just before the operation, the pilots caused operational trouble.
So they had to do the dropping of the bomb manually.
It is said that they missed the target about 3 km north.
That means the original target was in the heart of the city!
The place of the explosion was over this park.
There are many monuments for the repose of dead souls by A-bomb.
Hypocenter Cenotaph (原爆落下中心碑) is the central monument.
The former Urakami Cathedral was also destroyed in a moment.
The remaining part of the cathedral has been moved in this park.
Memorial of the 50th anniversary of A-bomb
Bombed objects under the ground
We can see the destroyed bricks, melted bottles, burned soils, etc. by the A-bomb in the ground.
There are Peace Park just to the north of this park and Atomic Bomb Museum just to the east.
And current Urakami Cathedral is about 0.6 km northeast, and Sanno Shrine is about 0.8 km southeast.
On November 24, 2019, Pope Francis visited this park.
And, in front of Hypocenter Cenotaph, he expressed a message that the nuclear weapon does not protect people from a crisis of the security.
How to get here
By street car with route No. 1 or 3, get off at Heiwa-koen stop.
