Nagasaki Lantern Festival - Zimmin Around the World

Nagasaki, Japan. To Westerners, one image or thought instantly pops up when discussing the Japanese city of Nagasaki. August 9th, 1945, 3 days after the atomic bomb exploded over the city of Hiroshima, Nagasaki witnessed a similar fate. Fat Man – the name given to the atomic bomb that exploded over Nagasaki, killing around 80,000, ultimately leading to the surrender of Japan 6 days later. Prior to the war, Nagasaki was one of Japans most important and largest trading ports. Because of trade mainly by the Portuguese, Dutch, and Chinese, there are a lot of cultural influences within the city that make Nagasaki a truly unique city worth visiting not to mention they host the Lantern Festival every year around February.

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An Early History of Nagasaki

Nagasaki started off as a small fishing village on the Japanese island of Kyushu. The first outside visitors to arrive on the shores of Nagasaki were Portuguese explorers in the early 1500’s. Shintoism and Buddhism are the primary religions in Japan and Christianity was non-existent at the time of the first explorers arrival. The Portuguese decided to preach Christianity here before making their way through other areas of Japan. Because of the success of trading, in 1571, the local government decided to open a port here to allow trading with the Portuguese. Soon after, the Dutch and Chinese also found themselves here at the port trading goods. At one point, the Japanese government closed off all ports in Japan except Nagasaki to foreigners, so the city quickly expanded and became one of the more prominent cities in Southern Japan.

The War and How it Shaped Nagasaki

It is a shame that World War II and the atomic bomb are what makes Nagasaki so famous. But we can’t deny this, it will forever remain in our history. When you walk around the Peace Park and museum you will see the date August 9, 1945 everywhere. The day the atomic bomb was dropped and leveled the city killing 80,000 people. The B-29 known as Bockscar took off with “Fat Man”, the atomic bomb. The people of Kokura got very lucky that day, as Kokura was the primary target, but due to haze and bad visibility that day, Bockscar flew to Nagasaki, the secondary target. At approximately 10:58 am local time, Fat Man was dropped and exploded 1,640 ft above ground. Half of the 80,000 people on the ground died instantly, and the rest died days, weeks, months, years later of injuries from the blast and radiation. About 40% of the entire city was completely destroyed. Because of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered. Nagasaki and most of Japan has done a tremendous job of rebuilding their city, history, and culture since the war.

Attractions and Sites

Nagasaki is not a huge city but has a lot to offer, therefor I suggest spending two days here. There are trams that connect the city and travel frequently so it easy to get from one end to the other relatively quickly.

Atomic Bomb Museum – Museums in Japan are inexpensive, the entrance fee for the Atomic Bomb Museum is 200 Yen. If you are a foreign visitor in Nagasaki, this museum is a must. The museum is not very big but it is informative and of course tragic but it is a part of our history. The museum has a replica of Fat Man and a lot of artifacts that were collect after the bombing along with stories of residents at the time of the bombing.

Peace Park – Not far from the museum is the Peace Park, a place for remembrance. Beautifully laid out and has one of the coolest escalators I’ve seen.

Dejima – An Open-Air-Museum, set up to show what the port was like for the Portuguese and Dutch traders. Originally it was an island and made to separate Westerners from the local Japanese. Today, you can freely walk around and explore the buildings.

Chinatown – The oldest in Japan and is fairly large. This area is full of restaurants and shops.

Oura Church – Considered the oldest Catholic church in all of Japan and is a UNESCO site. I found the entrance to be very expensive for what it is, 1000 Yen.

Kofukiuji Temple – The oldest Chinese temple in Nagasaki. It was built by a Chinese monk in 1620. There is a 300 Yen fee to enter the grounds for this temple.

Lantern Festival

For a long time, Nagasaki has had residents from China. The famous lantern festival started when they would celebrate the Chinese New Year everywhere. In the year 1994, the city of Nagasaki made it a tradition to turn this into Japan’s largest lantern festival. Since then, every year the lantern festival takes place in Nagasaki on January 1st of the lunar calendar year for fifteen days. During this time period the city sets up over 15,000 lanterns throughout Chinatown and other parts of the city and the celebrations begin! During the 15 days, Chinatown is completely overrun by locals and tourists. All shops and restaurants are open but there are several street vendors and festival areas serving food. Honestly, one of our favorite street foods was a Baked Sea Bream, a cake in the shape of a fish filled with either Red Beans or Custard. After living here in Japan for several months, they tend to put red bean paste in a lot of pastries, it is ok but usually I think it’s chocolate, so it is always a let down, my opinion is go with the custard sea bream. Other then food and drinks, many activities take place daily. You should get a pamphlet with events their location and times. Some of the events that occured were the Emperor’s Parade, Dragon Dance, Lion Dance, Acrobatics, karate, and the changing of the masks (Bian Lian)!

Bian Lian – I was at the Kofukiuji Temple with Jill and Kimball for an event. Unfortunately, Jill told us the wrong time and we ended up at the temple for over an hour waiting for the event. We had no idea what the event was but found seats and the temple was a beautiful backdrop for whatever event was scheduled. All of a sudden, music began to play and a fairly large individual appeared in front of the temple wearing a black outfit with huge feathers and a colorful mask. We had no idea what was happening but the performer danced to the music and all of a sudden snapped his fan and boom, a new mask appeared! How was that possible? Not even a split second and his face went from orange to green! Apparently this is an ancient Chinese art associated with a traditional opera where the performer would dance to music and instantly swap their mask with the flick of the fan or other movement. This event was definitely a highlight for me from the Lantern Festival.