The Church bell of Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, destroyed by an American atomic bomb, has been reinstalled and will ring on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, a Japanese archbishop says. Source: UCA News.
“The new bell was recently installed in the empty bell tower and will ring for the first time at the same time that the atomic bomb exploded in the sky of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945,” Peter Michiaki Nakamura, Archbishop of Nagasaki, told Vatican’s Fides news agency.
Also known as Immaculate Conception or simply as St. Mary’s Cathedral, Urakami Cathedral is a historic Church and pilgrimage site in Japan.
It was almost destroyed when the atomic bomb exploded about 500 metres away.
The bomb not only devastated the city but also killed an unknown number of Catholics who were attending a preparatory Mass in the church ahead of the Feast of Assumption on August 15.
The Church’s reconstruction was complete by 1959. However, the bell tower remained empty.
In recent months, several American Catholics have raised funds to rebuild that bell and have donated it to the Cathedral, Fides reported.
Archbishop Nakamura said the bell will ring at 11.04 am Japanese time and “will be a reminder of the victims and a call for peace”.
The atomic bomb made and dropped by the US destroyed the bell, but American citizens donated and rebuilt it, and it was welcomed by the Church of Urakami, making “it a concrete sign of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope,” the bishop said.
The prelate noted it as a witness to the possibility of establishing peace in the world.
“I hope that, every time that bell rings, people will remember these events and can commit themselves, with hope, to building peace,” Archbishop Nakamura said.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the war and the atomic attack, and it is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of preventing war, he said.
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Atom bomb-destroyed Nagasaki Church bell to ‘toll for peace’ (UCA News)
