Monday March 16th
Nagasaki Japan

Best known as the site of the second atomic bomb on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m. after Hiroshima two days earlier.
This event speaks for itself. Nagasaki was not the primary target that day but the secondary target due to poor weather. The B-29 bomber “Bock’s Car” was running low on fuel and about to abort when the cloud cover opened and there was the target. “Fat Boy” was dropped, with the equivalent of 44,000 tons of TNT and killed 150,000 people. 75,000 instantaneously and 75,000 over the next 5 years. We visited the Peace Park, Atomic Bomb Museum and the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter.
Today the city has been completely rebuilt and radiation measurements stopped in 1976. It is a modern industrial city of 470,000 with a major ship building operation.
Historically, Nagasaki is noted as the only trade port open to foreigner after the expulsion from Japan of all foreign Christians in the mid-17th century. Only the Dutch and Chinese were allowed access to trade with Japan via Nagasaki. This policy was ended in 1853 following the arrival of Commodore Perry’s “black ships” after more than 200 years of trade prohibition. We visited the house of the most famous trader Thomas Blake Glover 1838 to 1911. He was noted for the introduction of many western industries to Japan and garnering the profits that resulted from these activities.